Chris Pine, Hollywood’s man of the moment, is Issue 84's Cover Star

Don’t Worry Darling reunited him with his Outlaw King teammate Pugh. She told The Rake: “My time with Chris is always glorious. I get to watch and learn from a friend, which is such a privilege. He’s always been a class act, and working with him on Don’t Worry Darling felt like the most thrilling game of acting tennis.” The feeling is mutual. “I think Florence is maybe the best actor of her generation,” Pine says. “To be so young and so grounded and so confident in her abilities and sexuality and personhood... I can only compare to myself when I was in my twenties: I was such a wreck. To be around someone like [Florence], I always joke that her parents should tour the world and do seminars about how to raise children, because Flo is a great woman, a really wonderful person, great to be around, joyful, and intensely creative. She has a beautiful singing voice. I love her to death, and every time working with her is a great blessing.”

I’d like to think that, having done around 40 of these kinds of interviews now, it has become easier for me to tell whether a subject is digging deep into his or her publicity training or is speaking from the heart. Chris Pine, in these images, looks as though he has adopted the character of The Rake, personifying all the values, ethics and standards we prioritise, and to which we aspire, as if it were his latest role. This makes sense, for he is an actor of significant and convincing talent. Yet my experience also tells me — and you, dear reader, can make up your own mind — that it is not, in this instance, a role he is playing. It is a credo he owns and seeks to live up to every day. Perhaps this gave me the sense of comfort I felt during our conversation. It was the reassuring balm of knowing that, out there, the archetype of The Rake really does exist, and it is Chris Pine.