Pratt, best known to date for his turn as a chunky trickster in NBC's 'Parks and Recreation,' has become an unlikely action hero in the Marvel movie, opening late Thursday in New York City. The 35-year-old actor said he spent five months turning extra weight into muscle for his role as Star Lord.
Actor Chris Pratt brought his own laser-gun sound effects to the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy” — much to the chagrin of the filmmakers.
“I blew a couple of takes because I was making the shooting sounds with my mouth while I was filming,” Pratt says laughing.
“I blew a couple of takes because I was making the shooting sounds with my mouth while I was filming,” Pratt says laughing.
“They said, ‘What are you doing with your mouth?’ And I was like, ‘pewpewpewpewpew,’” he says, sounding like an 11-year-old running around a backyard.
“They’re like, ‘Dude you can’t do that, that just cost us $75,000. You blew the take!’ I just don’t know how to shoot a toy gun at someone without making that noise.”
The 35-year-old Pratt, best known to date for his turn as a chunky goof on the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” is the first to admit he makes an unlikely action hero in the Marvel movie opening late Thursday in New York City.
When he walked into his audition for “Guardians,” he wasn’t very high on their list to play Star Lord, the leader of the titular band of space outlaws turned heroes.
“Chris came in probably 60 pounds overweight, completely out of shape, did not look like a superhero,” says director James Gunn. “But within 20 seconds, I turned to the casting director, Sarah Finn, and said, ‘He’s the guy.’”
Before Pratt could get his hands on those toy laser guns, though, he had to spend five months turning that extra weight into muscle.
Alternating between stretches of eating 5,000 calories a day to help build muscle and starving himself with about one quarter of that amount of food to burn fat, Pratt now looks like he was chiseled out of marble.
“It was a lot of running and sweating and swimming and biking and hiking and boxing and crying and being grumpy and moody,” recounts Pratt.
He’s continuing to do a lot of running on his next flick, the currently-in-production “Jurassic World,” trading grappling with CGI aliens for running from CGI dinosaurs.
On his way to becoming a full-fledged celebrity — married to the stunning and hilarious Anna Faris, with one box office hit under his belt (voicing the lead in “The Lego Movie”) and a second one likely after this weekend.
But it’s still a big game for Pratt.
“It’s called playing a character for a reason. We are very much children at play making a movie like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’” he says.
“At the end of the day, I am just a guy who moved to town with no money hoping that I would be an actor. I haven’t forgotten that.”
