Chris Pine has addressed speculation that Harry Styles spit on him at the Venice International Film Festival during the premiere of "Don't Worry Darling."
The ordeal, famously known as "SpitGate," made headlines last year after video that captured the alleged moment went viral on social media.
The footage shows Styles bending over to take a seat next to his co-star, Pine, who is clapping. Just before sitting down, Styles' lips are seen moving in a way that many speculated was him spitting. Pine then stops clapping, looks down, raises his eyebrows, and shakes his head. He appears to be amused and slightly taken aback as he then reaches down and grabs his sunglasses that are placed between his legs.
Pine, through a representative, previously denied the rumors, saying that the reports were "ridiculous," but in a new interview with Esquire, he admitted the viral video was convincing.
"It does look, indeed, like Harry spitting on me. He didn't spit on me," Pine stated.
The actor also recalled being completely unaware of the hype surrounding the ordeal until he woke up to a media frenzy.
"I was on the plane with my publicist, who says I look like Rachel from 'Friends' [with my current hairstyle], we're flying back from Venice. And I'm sleeping, having a great time on the plane. I love planes," he explained.
"And she wakes me up, in a, you know, in a state. She says, 'We have to craft a message about what happened in Venice.' And I'm like 'About what?' 'About Harry spitting on you.' Which I have no idea what happened. She showed me the thing."
During the interview, Pine elaborated on what actually took place during that viral moment that was captured on video.
"I think what he said, is he leaned down, and I think he said, 'It's just words, isn't it?' Because we had this little joke, because we're all jetlagged, we're all trying to answer these questions, and sometimes when you're doing these press things, your brain goes all befuddled, you know, you start speaking gibberish, and we had a joke like, 'It's just words, man,'" he recalled.
Last year, Styles made light of the drama while appearing onstage in New York for the Madison Square Garden leg of his U.S. music tour.
"This is our 10th show at Madison Square Garden," Styles said, according to Rolling Stone. "It is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be back here, I just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine," he continued before letting out a laugh. "But fear not, we're back!"