NEW YORK — Chris Pine wasn’t afraid to accept one of the most challenging jobs in film history: portraying a young James T. Kirk in the 2009 “Star Trek” reboot. Yet despite visions of William Shatner and the qualms of some Trekkies, the Los Angeles native managed to put his stamp on the role, and a star was born.

Since then, the graduate of UC Berkeley has shown his chops in a wide variety of parts, from the action film “Unstoppable” to the romantic comedy “This Means War.” In “People Like Us,” opening Friday, he plays the bitter son of a legendary music producer, who discovers that his father has a love child (Elizabeth Banks) from a previous relationship. Lewis Beale talked with Pine by phone from Los Angeles.

You come from a tight-knit family — actor father Robert, psychotherapist mom Anne — the total opposite of the fractured group in “People Like Us.” How do you as an actor manage to relate to such a situation?