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Quentin Tarantino has revealed who he thinks is the best young actor working in Hollywood today – and it’s someone who has never starred in any of his films, The Independent reports.

During an appearance on The Ringer‘s podcast The Rewatchables, the director – who this week picked up his third Best Director Oscar nomination, for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – elected to discuss the 2010 film Unstoppable at length.

Unstoppable, the Tony Scott thriller about a runaway freight train, stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, whom Tarantino cited as his favourite young actor.

“I think one of the things that’s exciting about the movie is I am a huge Chris Pine fan,” he said. “Now, to me, of the actors of his age, he’s hands down my favourite  – of that group, of that era, of those guys.”

He says that while he enjoyed his performance in 2009’s Star Trek, it wasn’t until Unstoppable that he became “a movie star” in the director’s eyes.

“I think a case can be made that Pine hasn’t taken the next big leap from Unstoppable,” the director argued. “Frankly, to tell you the truth, he’s been good in other movies [but] he hasn’t had that.”

When host Bill Simmons joked that Pine is “waiting” for Tarantino to write him a part, the director said: “I’m the biggest fan of him so if I had the right part, I would – I’d like to.”