Chris Pine Finally Addresses That Harry Styles #SpitGate Incident

Don't worry, darling, there's no drama here.

Chris Pine is setting the record straight once and for all on the rumors Harry Styles spit on him at the 2022 Venice Film Festival premiere of their movie Don't Worry Darling. And the answer is…

"Harry did not spit on me," Chris, 42, said in a new Esquire video for its March 2023 issue. "Harry's a very, very kind guy."

In case you missed it, the spitting speculation started after a video of Harry, 29, and Chris at the September screening went viral. But according to the Star Trek actor, he didn't know they had caused such a frenzy until he was flying out of Venice and his publicist told him they needed to give a response.   

"I had no idea what happened," he recalled. "She showed me the thing, and it does look, indeed, like Harry's spitting on me. He didn't spit on me."

However, Chris has an explanation for what was actually going on during their quick exchange.

"I think what he said is he leaned down and I think he said, 'It's just words isn't it?'" he continued. "'Cause we had this little joke. 'Cause we're all jet-lagged, we're all trying to answer these questions that, sometimes, when you're doing these press things, your brain goes all befuddled and you start speaking gibberish. And we had a joke, 'It's just words, man.'"

Chris' official explanation comes months after his rep slammed the rumors surrounding what became to be known as #SpitGate.  

"People are seeing some odd illusion of sorts online that is clearly deceiving...there is nothing but respect between these two men," the rep told E! News at the time. "This is a completely fabricated exchange, and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant attempt to create drama that simply does not exist."

Even director and co-star Olivia Wilde weighed in on the gossip, noting on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert later that month, "I think it's a perfect example of, like, people will look for drama anywhere they can. Harry did not spit on Chris, in fact."

Unfortunately, this wasn't the only drama surrounding the film's release. In addition to Olivia and Harry's romance making headlines—with the pair breaking up in late 2022 year after about two years together—rumors swirled about the director and star Florence Pugh's alleged tension on set, which Olivia has denied. 

In his Esquire cover story, Chris addressed the sea of rumors that have followed the movie since filming. 

"If there was drama, there was drama," he explained in his Esquire feature published March 1. "I absolutely didn't know about it, nor really would I have cared. If I feel badly, it's because the vitriol that the movie got was absolutely out of proportion with what was onscreen. Venice was normal things getting swept up in a narrative that people wanted to make, compounded by the metastasizing that can happen in the Twittersphere. It was ridiculous."  

And for the record, the Hell or High Water star has nothing but love for his co-stars, calling Harry "a sweet guy" (who he reiterates didn't spit on him) and noting he loves Florence "to f--king death."

Still, there were plenty of moments from the festival that left Chris laughing, including photos of his hair—with him noting his publicist told him he "looked like Rachel from Friends"—and those memes of him appearing bored at a press conference. And for that he has a simple explanation.

"Sometimes the question's not that interesting," he stated, "and you just f--king zone out, and you're looking at a ceiling because it's really pretty."