Timothy Olyphant lost Star Trek role to younger rival Chris Pine

Timothy Olyphant lost out on a role in the 2009 'Star Trek' reboot to younger rival Chris Pine.

The 55-year-old actor has revealed he initially auditioned for the role of ship medic Dr. Leonard McCoy in J.J. Abrams' movie but the director suggested he tried out for Captain Kirk instead - but he was eventually passed over in favour of Pine who is 13 years his junior.

Speaking on the 'Happy Sad Confused podcast prior to the Hollywood actors strike, Olyphant explained: "Here’s what I can tell you about ‘Star Trek’: I went in and auditioned not for Captain Kirk, but I remember reading with J.J. Abrams and he’s just a lovely, lovely guy. And just a lovely, lovely audition process. Somewhere in there, I was auditioning for Doc, he’s like, ‘I already got a guy for Doc, so I don’t need you for that, but I don’t have a Kirk'."

Olyphant went on to admit his age may have played a part in the casting decision, adding: "I believe it was one of those things where it’s like they might have been prepared to hire me, but they wanted somebody younger, and [Abrams] was having a hard time finding somebody younger. And somewhere along the line, J.J. called and said, ‘I found a guy, younger, who’s really good'."

However, there's no bad blood between him and Pine. Olyphant said of the actor: "I have since then met Chris Pine and I am a huge fan of him both on and off screen. I love that guy. He’s a good dude. This sounds very show business-y, but I had the honour, we’re going to say honour, to go to the Golden Globes one year … and I spent most of the evening at the bar with Chris Pine. Just really adored him. What a good guy. I really like his work. He’s one of those guys who makes it look simple and easy."