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Chris Pine needed support of Star Trek cast to cope with Anton Yelchin's death

Written by . Published: July 13 2016

Chris Pine needed his Star Trek Beyond castmates to help him through his grief over actor Anton Yelchin's tragic death.


Anton, 27, starred as the mathematical genius Pavel Chekov in the rebooted Star Trek franchise but died last month (Jun16) in a freak car accident.


And Chris, who plays Captain James T. Kirk in the new films, admits that his grief after learning of his friend and colleague's death was so intense he needed his castmates and family to help him overcome it.


"I don't really know any other way that I would have been able to deal with it without having my friends and my family around me," the 35-year-old tells WENN. "I'm new to that kind of grief and new to losing people and it's just an awful thing but at least we had our friends there."


Anton was found by friends pinned in between his Jeep Cherokee car and a brick pillar after it rolled down a sloping driveway at his San Fernando Valley home in California.


Bosses at Fiat Chrysler, the manufacturers of the vehicle, launched an investigation into the accident after it emerged that the actor's car was a model which had been subject to recall due to a number accidents.


Speaking at the U.K. premiere of Star Trek Beyond, Chris and Anton's castmate Zachary Quinto, who plays Mr Spock in the new film, said that his loss had led to its stars bonding in their grief.


"Losing Anton is unthinkable for all of us and I think it brought us closer together through the bonding of grieving his loss," he says. "But that's a very private thing, it's something that we experienced together and individually and now it has to be about celebrating him, celebrating his life and celebrating the incredible work he did in our films and many others."


Zachary lost another close friend in Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock in the original Star Trek TV series and films, who died last year (15) aged 83.


The 39-year-old star has described Leonard as acting as a "father figure" to him after he handed over the role when the franchise was rebooted in 2009, a film which saw the elder star appear as an alternate reality version of Spock.


The new movie's writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung paid tribute to Leonard in the new film, a decision Zachary agreed with as he explains, "I think it was very important to honor Leonard's legacy in this film and it was very important for me personally that we found a way to include it in the story."


Star Trek Beyond is released in the U.K. and U.S. on 22 July (16).

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