Chris Pratt's secrets: a failed stripper, why he weighed 136 kilos and when he was about to be "cancelled"

Before becoming a Marvel superhero, Chris Pratt was known simply as “the guy” from the TV sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. But he became a bona fide movie star when he starred in 2014's “Guardians of the Galaxy ”, which grossed more than $700 million and put him definitely in the big leagues of Hollywood.

Pratt, 42, has also had other memorable leading and supporting roles to his credit in which he has showcased his gift for comedy. The actor's versatility and hard work soon made him one of the leading players in the film industry, joining an elite group that has dominated the box office for the past decade. Although he enjoys this position, the road to get to that point was long and bumpy.

“Fighting something that doesn't exist is particularly embarrassing, and I've had plenty of experience running from creatures that aren't in 'Jurassic World' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' Basically, my job is to look at Troy, the stuntman, who is the real star”, the actor was honest, who seems to have received the torch of the new action hero from his father-in-law, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.

The actor is familiar with how Hollywood has worked in recent years: he is one of the main faces of two of the most profitable film franchises, Universal's Jurassic World and Disney's Marvel. “Studios work with an algorithm that determines what the best return on investment will be based on reach,” Pratt said while promoting “The Tomorrow War” , a film that combines the war genre with science fiction. The mega-production, starring and produced by Pratt, was sold to Amazon Studios for an estimated amount of 200 million dollars, numbers that currently only manage sagas such as “Fast and Furious” or “Star Wars”. ”.

After the premiere of this great personal bet, Pratt is preparing for 2022 in which he will return to the multimillion-dollar sagas with “Jurassic World: Dominition” and “Thor: Love and Thunder ”, although he is determined to continue adding projects as a producer.

For his charisma and humor, Pratt is one of the most beloved by the public, although last year he was on the verge of losing everything when he faced cancellation culture. His silence during the US presidential campaign almost cost him dearly.

From failed stripper to Hollywood

In 1996, before becoming a $26 million-a-year superstar in Hollywood, facing off against dinosaurs and creatures from another galaxy, Pratt, then 17, barely owned an old pickup truck. , in which he would live an experience that would completely mark his career. After dropping out of college and selling coupons for a living, he decided to accept a friend's invitation tolive with him in Maui, Hawaii, penniless and jobless, having to live for more than three years in his car. since he did not even have enough to pay for a hotel room or to eat. He lived by eating what he caught in the sea and doing small temporary jobs to buy the most basic things. "It was a lovely moment," recalled the actor in dialogue with the British newspaper The Independent.

In fact, he recalled those years in Hawaii on Facebook some time ago, posting an image in which he wrote: “I can't believe I found this photo! This is the van I lived in! In my hands I carry the script of the movie that got me out of Maui. Crazy".

Pratt has a very varied and extensive resume. He was a salesman in a hamburger restaurant, in a bingo room and was a babysitter. To earn a living, he also tried his hand as a stripper, although it didn't go very well. Her most memorable night was stripping down to a friend's grandmother's birthday party. “I loved getting naked. It was very free, so I thought I could get paid for it," the actor explained to Buzzfeed.

While Pratt looked good enough to be paid $40 to remove his clothes, the actor also admitted failing to land a steady job as a nightclub stripper . He tried, but was not very successful. According to the actor, he had the physique but not enough skills to strip to the beat of the music.

In 2014, the Virginia-based actor shared on Twitter the first professional photo he got as a 20-something job seeker in Hollywood. The image looks like it belongs on the cover of a gripping romance novel, complete with Pratt's massive locks while his unbuttoned shirt shows off part of Pratt's chest.

The story behind this photograph is quite peculiar, as Pratt revealed to Jimmy Fallon. “I was in an area of ​​Los Angeles called West Hollywood,” he explained. “A predominantly gay area, a truly fabulous place. I was at the post office and there was this guy who really looked at me for a long time.”

The man looking at Pratt turned out to be a photographer who asked the aspiring actor if he wanted his picture taken. Pratt not only went to the stranger's house for the production, but also used the photographer's shower and wore one of his T-shirts for the shoot. To this day, Pratt remains grateful to this strange. “He was a good guy. So if you're looking, friend, if you remember, thank you”. The photograph aroused interest, he was called to do a casting and landed a role in the series "Everwood'" in 2002.

Although I had already had my first acting experience before.

Hollywood is full of stories of strangers walking around Los Angeles who are discovered by talent agents based solely on their appearance. Something similar happened to Pratt when he worked as a waiter at a restaurant belonging to the Bubba Gump Shrimp seafood chain. In an interview with Vanity Fair, the actor revealed that it was a chance meeting with actress Rae Dawn Chong while waiting to be served by him when he got his first break in the industry. It turned out that Chong was producing a horror comedy called “Cursed Part 3”. Due to his great attractiveness, the woman auditioned him for the main role, which the actor managed to land. The film itself did little to advance Pratt's career, with the actor himself calling it “the worst movie I'd ever seen”. But he did play an important role, however, as according to Pratt, “the only reason I was in that movie was just so they would take me to Hollywood.”

Pratt was also happy with his first salary as an actor: $700. Today he has amassed a fortune as a superhero and escaping from dinosaurs. According to Variety, he received $10 million for his work on “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” in 2018.

His transformation into a Marvel superhero

Spending the day learning how to cook hamburgers on the stove! also getting oven practice in by cooking chips. mmm, lunch, here I eat! :)

— Andrew Head Tue Apr 30 01:46:16 +0000 2013

Actors are often praised for gaining weight for a dramatic role, like Christian Bale for “Vice” or Jared Leto for “Chapter 27.” Chris Pratt went through a similar journey, but to get a job as a comedian, as the actor himself explained.

When asked by a fan in an open chat via Reddit about his past as a comedic actor with a few extra pounds, Pratt explained that gaining weight was actually "intentional" and helped him land better roles. “I was confident and in good shape when I first came to Los Angeles, but no one cast me in any well-written roles,” the actor recounted. “People assumed, based on my appearance, that I was an idiot. They only called me to play stupid and hated characters.”

Pratt found this type of pigeonholing limiting his career. When cast as Andy Dwyer, a unkempt thirtysomething with a paunch and double chin, on the TV sitcom “Parks and Recreation” (2009-2015), the actor chose to gain over 40 pounds for the role. With permission from series creator, writer-producer Michael Schur. “It wasn't until I built an exterior of a jerk, which stood in stark contrast to my inner confidence, that people gave me space to do comedy,” explained the interpreter, who was finally able to unleash Unleash your skills to make you laugh.

But everything changed the day he decided to try other genres in film. When he went to the casting for the movie “ Moneyball ” (2011) and was told that he was too fat to play a baseball player . He decided to stop drinking, watched his diet and began to exercise. With this turn towards a healthy life, he not only managed to enter the cast of the production starring Brad Pitt, but also got his own superhero movie with “Guardians of the Galaxy” from Marvel. With a body already worked with a more handsome profile, Pratt entered the club of Hollywood sex symbols.

She had previously weighed 136 kilos. “I have not always been fat, but I have been for a time in my life, almost eight years. In a way, it was a lot of fun because I love to eat and drink beer, but I was also very depressed. I was 31 years old and had serious health problems that were affecting me," said the actor at Comic-Con 2013, when he had already managed to transform his body to approximately 100 kilos of pure muscle. A change that opened other doors for him, he acknowledged. "I am competing for roles that no one would have considered for me before."

By the time he auditioned for the James Gunn movie, he had already lost some weight, but he was still out of shape. They hired him on the condition that he lose more weight . Pratt gave his word and worked very hard to achieve it. In just six months, the American interpreter, who measures 1.91 meters, achieved it. In addition to giving up alcohol, he began working out six times a week in three-hour sessions a day with Duffy Gaver, former Navy Seal turned celebrity fitness trainer, a man who is no stranger to the demands of filming, and has trained clients like Tobey Maguire or Brad Pitt.

“I think Chris's body at the time worked for the type of actor he was, but it was time for a change,” Gave said when asked about the high-performance training plan. intensity that transformed the actor into a true Marvel superhero. “I'm very proud of the work I did with him, because it made him go from being a certain type of character to being a leading man. And a much-requested protagonist.”

On the verge of being canceled due to his political and religious ideology

In 2020 as Hollywood came out in droves to support Joe Biden to oust Donald Trump from the White House, Chris Pratt faced a crisis of unprecedented image. It was because he decided not to appear in an act of "The Avengers", a saga in which he is one of the protagonists, in support of the Democratic candidate. It received fierce criticism online and suffered a “cancellation” campaign. Many users accused him of being a “white supremacist” for not showing his public support for the current US president, demanding his dismissal from the successful Marvel franchise.

His lack of positioning in the electoral campaign, added to his conservative lifestyle, turned the interpreter into “The Worst Chris in Hollywood”. It all started when director Amy Berg posted on Twitter a A kind of survey in which he invited users to choose which of these four actors "has to go" along with photographs of Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine. Pratt was the one who received the most votes.

At the same time, the actor was seen walking with his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, wearing a T-shirt with the American flag with a snake and the slogan “Don't Tread on Me” (“Don't tread on me”), considered racist and linked to white supremacists.

As users shared information about him, from his ties to the anti-LGBTQ Hillsong Church to his possible support for the Republican Party, his fellow Marvel Universes, from Mark Ruffalo to Robert Downey Jr., fiercely defended him.

“That he is not a political activist does not indicate or mean anything” said Ruffalo, while Downey Jr stated: “He is a true Christian who lives by principle, has never shown anything but positivity and gratitude". For his part, James Gunn , director of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, expressed: “He is the best guy in the world. I have spent hours and hours sharing my deepest truths with this man. Please stop assuming what he believes, politically or otherwise, just because he's a Christian.”

Pratt chose silence.

Many in those days remembered the actress Ellen Page, now Elliot Page, who accused the Pratt church of defending and spreading homophobic ideas, claiming that it “is so anti-LGBTQ, that it is infamous ”. Back then, in 2019, the actor publicly defended himself: “My faith is important to me, but it doesn't define my lifestyle. My values ​​are what define me.”

“Despite what the Bible says about divorce, my Church was by my side throughout the process, without judging me, accompanying me every step of the way,” added the artist, referring to his separation from the actress Anna Faris, mother of his first son, Jack, and whom he divorced in 2018. “I am a man convinced that all people have the right to love whoever they want without being judged for the neighbor”, he sentenced.

CONTINUE READING: