Pine and Foster keep building together with ‘The Contractor’

The actors team for their third action collaboration

Chris Pine and Ben Foster are sharing the screen for the third time with “The Contractor,” a new action thriller that Pine also produced.

The two actors, born two months apart in 1980, just clicked from the start, they both say.

“I think in the first month of meeting Ben, meeting him, I didn’t feel so alone anymore,” Pine says. “Ben has qualities and nuances that I understand. That I can’t really articulate, but I just get.”

They first worked together on a pair of 2016 releases. “The Finest Hours” starred Pine as a young Coast Guard officer and Foster as one of his crew, heading out on a dangerous rescue attempt in a New England storm.

In “Hell or High Water,” the pair play brothers who rob banks as an act of revenge against predatory lenders, with Jeff Bridges as the lawman in pursuit.

Now, in “The Contractor,” out today, Pine plays James Harper, a career Green Beret who’s bounced out of the service after he’s injured. Foster plays his former commanding officer, Mike Denton, who recruits James to work as a private military contractor for a black-ops mission in Germany.

There, the operation quickly reveals itself to be not what James had signed on for, and he’s soon forced to fight for his life — and his family.

The two actors recently connected on a video call to talk about the film and their friendship. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

QWhat appealed to you, Chris, when you first read the script for “The Contractor”?

PINE >> On the surface, this is a very traditional action-thriller genre film, kind of straight down the center. But there were a couple of poetic flairs that the script had, originally at least, that really intrigued me. I knew something was lurking beneath the script which was really, really fascinating.

Then, I was reading a lot of Yuval Harari, “Sapiens” and whatnot. What I found fascinating about that is he says the human animal is the only animal that creates stories to live by. Things like democracy, for instance, or honor or brotherhood. These things that we talk about and say, “Well, yes, that’s the truth,” but you can’t touch ’em, you can’t see ’em. Things that we’ve created.

James is a composite of these stories, and yet these stories, in the beginning of the film, are ripped out from his spinal cord [when the Army discharges him]. He’s kicked to the ground, and he tries to reinvigorate himself with one of these same stories, only to find that it’s completely corrupted and malignant.

I said, “That’s a story. That’s the sandbox I want to play in.”

QBen, you joined the project just a few weeks before shooting started — what got you onboard?

FOSTER >> Chris called me and we had a brief catch-up, and then you get down to business. Which is, “I got a thing; we’re going soon.”

And it offered an opportunity to scratch a personal obsession, which is the trauma cycle, particularly in the returning soldier. How do we reintegrate? How do we find purpose and meaning once we’ve returned?

We are the generation of the desert wars. My parents are the generation of Vietnam. And it shapes you. So the questions felt really important. Hopefully, it’s a Trojan horse that through great action and fun sequences is grounded in some kind of reality, could ask some of these questions of values.

QUnlike a traditional thriller it doesn’t start off with a bang, but slowly builds James’ character until we get to Germany, and then it’s nonstop action. Was it difficult to get everyone onboard for that?

PINE >> Beautifully, it was not. In the edit, it became something of, how do you maintain a level of anticipation or anxiety before the [stuff] hits the fan? But never while shooting. The script was gorgeous, but I think it almost worked better as a short story than as a film. So the film required a tremendous amount of nuancing and finessing. It was a really delicate animal.

But I wouldn’t have done the film if we didn’t have 30 minutes in front of the action. This is the film I wanted to make, which was a character study wrapped up in an action thriller. If you don’t have the first 30 minutes of the film, I don’t know, like how many action sequences can you have in a film?

What ended up on screen was precisely the balance I had hoped for, and we never got any pushback from anyone.

QThis is your third film together — what do you guys get out of the friendship and the onscreen collaboration?

PINE >> The reason why I called him, I want Ben because I love Ben. I really liked making him laugh, because his seriousness reminds me of my own. It’s like playing with a side of myself.

He just goes at the work the same. I mean, he’s definitely a deeper diver than I think I am, but I love unpacking [stuff], and we just like playing a lot. And the more comfortable we get, the more it’s, like, what’s the best thing for the scene? What do I need to do? It’s just a complete dance.

FOSTER >>

We just kick tires. That’s what we do for a living.

QAnd Chris is a good tire-kicking companion?

FOSTER >> Yeah, it’s a joy. I’ve said it before, I don’t play music, but I listen a lot. The closest thing that I get in our trade and our work is a feeling of what they call jamming. You’re not outthinking it; you’re listening to the music together. You’re not trying to outdo somebody, which is not uncommon in our industry.

I have a true collaborator in Chris, and it’s safe and it’s fun and inquisitive. He’s intuitive, wildly imaginative and an incredible student. I mean, what more do you want when you go to work?

So yeah, it’s so nice when somebody you care about calls and says, “Hey, wanna do it again?” And I hope to call him or get a call from him again. It’s rare.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STX FINANCING LLC Chris Pine portrays a former Green Beret who takes on a black-ops mission in Germany with his former commanding officer, played by Ben Foster, in “The Contractor.”

From left are Nicolas Noblitt, Pine and Foster.