In “Hell or High Water,’’ Chris Pine and Ben Foster play bank-robbing brothers, Toby and Tanner, in present-day west Texas. Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham play Texas Rangers on their trail. David Mackenzie directed, and Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario’’) wrote the script. The film opens Friday.

This isn’t the first time Pine and Foster have worked together. Earlier this year, they starred in “The Finest Hours.’’

Speaking by telephone last month from Austin, Texas, they talked about “Hell or High Water, “ the influence of landscape on acting, and pulling a Shatner.

Q. What drew you to the script?

CP. Really for me, it was Taylor’s words. I just thought it was a beautiful piece of cowboy poetry. I really loved the story: men in love with one another, but unable to articulate it. Both relationships — Ben and me as brothers, and Jeff and Gil as partners.

BF. Well, it deals with a subject that’s hard to escape. I have a brother, and brotherhood, that sibling bond, is so important in life. This script allowed me to explore that, and it’s a story to haunt you for the rest of your life. Plus, it was a chance for dancing with Mr. Pine again.

Q. There’s a real chemistry between the two of you in the movie. Is that something you can work on, or it’s just there?

CP. It’s just the luck of the draw. Sometimes it’s the fakery of being on camera and fiction, and other times it’s enjoying someone’s company. Ben and I just found an easy rapport.

BF. Had to pretend!

CP. We talked a bit before we began shooting, among David, Ben and myself, the week before we began. What the family was all about, growing up. Also Ben and I had a chance to drive around New Mexico a few days, just hanging out, shooting the breeze. For me, it was really just about a guy who had closed up shop emotionally and turned inward, into himself, because he had to do that in order to survive. That seemed like a nice contrast with a guy like Tanner, who had to do the exact opposite. The dynamics were very clear.

Q. Ben, you want to add to that?

BF. No, he’s just like my brother. See, he speaks on my behalf [laughs].

Q. Conversely, Toby and Jeff Bridges’s character share only one scene. In a situation like that, do you consciously avoid the other actor to create a sense of distance and unfamiliarity?

CP. No, I would hang out with Jeff Bridges as much as I could. Who wouldn’t? Also, I’m not trying to piss him off in the scene. It’s just a beautifully, beautifully written scene: just this cowboy-masculine situation. It’s talking about without talking about — saying everything without saying anything at all. There’s just a beautiful sense of two guys who are tired, a sense of mutual respect and mutual distaste. It’s like Hemingway and Cormac McCarthy all wrapped in one.

Q. Both of you have played roles made famous by others [Pine, in the “Star Trek’’ movies; Foster, onstage, as Stanley Kowalski, opposite Gillian Anderson, in “A Streetcar Named Desire’’]. Does it make any difference if you create a role, as you do here, or if it’s bringing a new interpretation to a characters others have performed before you?

CP. Ultimately, you have to look at it as a part’s a part. You can only bring to it what you yourself have. In my case [as James T. Kirk], there was a little bit of latitude, because it’s fun to pull a [William] Shatner every now and then — there’s a meta aspect.

BF. I mean, “Streetcar’’ is one of the finest plays we have. Words you never conquer. The beauty of the script that Taylor wrote is that it feels so lived in. He knows these men, he knows how they care. I rarely read a script that feels perfect. This felt perfect.

Q. The landscape may be the most important character in the movie. Did it affect your performance?

CP. Sure, I think most people are somewhat sensitive to weather and environment, and actors especially so. What’s the quickest way in? Here it’s weather and environment. I happen to be quite fond of that area, west Texas and New Mexico. There’s a feeling of eternity, a brutality, that you have to weather when you’re in it.

BF. Yeah, I would tell David that I kept seeing in my mind as I read the script guys on horses staring off into the distance. That tableau was very important for me. There’s a sense of fatigue, of working with hot, barren conditions.

Q. How would you have felt about switching roles, the way actors do in repertory?

CP. [who’s 6 feet]. I’m not tall enough.

BF. [who’s 5 feet 9 inches]. [Laughter]

By Mark Feeney | Globe Staff

Interview has been edited and condensed. Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.