Chris Pine baulked when he was invited to audition for J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek movie, calling the sci-fi reboot "the furthest thing" from the dramatic parts he dreamed of tackling.

The Hollywood hunk was initially uninterested in joining Abrams' cast because he felt desperate to sink his teeth into a challenging script.

He tells Britain's Esquire magazine, "I wasn't a fan of Star Trek. It didn't excite me. All I wanted at that time was a part that I really connected to and when my agent said Star Trek, I said, 'No! Have you not been hearing anything I've said? Star Trek is the furthest thing from what I want to do.'"

Pine eventually agreed to try out for the role of the legendary Captain Kirk, made famous by William Shatner in the original TV/film franchise, and admits he was filled with anxiety about playing the much-loved character.

He recalls, "Star Trek scared me a lot. It terrified me, really. Because of the scale, the responsibility, the fact that it was this iconic character. It was the bigger challenge. So I had to take it."