Ten years ago, Chris Pratt turned from a round comedian on the fringes of Hollywood into a knotted blockbuster star - all thanks to a selfie with dice in his belly in 2012, ahead of the rise of Oscar-winning director Catherine Bigelow's alert at the capture of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, in which he appeared in a supporting role - Pratt decided to reveal on social media a "makeover" photo in which he looked muscular and immaculately shaped, compared to an older picture of him that immortalized a flabby belly of armchair sweet potatoes.
Overnight, photography caused the industry to re-watch the guy people recognized, at most, from casual roles on television.
"In the past, it was customary for executives at Hollywood's big studios to regularly have standard pictures of potential castings on their desks, and that was completely out of your hands. A look at what you look like, "Pratt tells me in retrospect of a turning point in his career.
"Had I not uploaded that selfie, which I took in the shower during the strenuous fitness training for 'Dawn Alert', I would not have gotten the big roles I so desperately wanted.
"In fact, when I tried to audition for Marvel and Disney 'The Guardians of the Galaxy', they replied that I was 'too fat' and did not think there was any point in inviting me. Luckily, that selfie went viral and thanks to it I got to meet them. , Passed it to me on the table and asked, 'Can you go back and look like this?'
I immediately replied, "Absolutely!
Give me six months. "Based on this commitment, I won the job."
A bit of a body object, I would say.
"The process was very awkward. When they showed me the selfie I felt like I was caught examining myself in the bathroom mirror. Like I was exposed as a full doshbag himself. But if that's what I had to do as an actor to secure my next role, disrupting them and the whole world judging me. The selfie I felt I was presenting authentic documentation, as if I had captured on camera an extraordinary natural phenomenon. Indeed, with 20 kg less - suddenly I have dice.
A few weeks after that crucial meeting, Pratt was officially announced as the lead star of the superhero movie "Guardians of the Galaxy" - a Marvel secondary project for the "Avengers" corporation worth billions.
The film proved to be the big surprise of the summer of 2014, after raking in $ 772 million at the box office.
Three years later, a sequel, which grossed $ 863 million, was released, and a month ago filming for the third film - which will air in May 2023 - ended
. The most lucrative actors in Hollywood, with a total of $ 11.3 billion of all the films he starred in - a respectable position behind established names such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Samuel L.
Jackson.
"Getting out of nowhere to such a position is inconceivable," admits Pratt, who will celebrate his 43rd birthday in less than two weeks. I'm in line with Robert Downey Jr., and my breath is taken away. Today I consider Robert one of my best friends, we talk on the phone, meet occasionally and of course see each other in the studios. The wisdom is to stop occasionally and be proud of where you are. "Lessons about the special things you have - the family, the house, even the bed where you sleep. Sometimes I am asked where I most want to fly for vacation, but at this point I have traveled to so many countries - that it is enough for me to sit in an armchair in the living room at home."
Muscular selfies.
"Until then I was told I was too fat,"
The sexual tension is over
A few months after the news of Pratt's casting became known, and at the same time his name began to star in the name exchange to inherit the legendary Indiana Jones role from Harrison Ford - Universal Studios announced that the rising actor would lead the sequel trilogy to "Jurassic Park", the dinosaur film series Steven Spielberg from the 1990s, based on the books of Michael Creighton.
Spielberg's original 1993 film served as an opening shot for a corporation that has since grossed more than $ 5 billion in total, without weighing the copy profits from the branding and the range of related products.
It is the most profitable film corporation in history in relation to the small number of films.
In June 2015, "The World of the Shooter" was released, the first episode in the sequel trilogy, which smashed the box office with $ 1.6 billion and is ranked as the seventh most profitable film in history.
It was followed by a second film from 2018, which grossed $ 1.3 billion (16th place in the ranking of the most watched films), and now "Shooter World: A New World" is coming out - which also came with many expectations of raking in high profits.
In the revitalized film series, Pratt plays Owen Grady, a former U.S. Army lander and trainer of Welsh-type dinosaurs in a park of cloned and genetically engineered dinosaurs near Costa Rica. Lockwood, the quiet partner who invested in setting up the park, actually plotted to clone and sell them.
The plot of the new film depicts a new world order, four years after the dinosaurs were released into the world.
They now live in the sea, in the air and on land, alongside humans - who in turn are grappling with the question of whether it is possible to live with the ancient creatures in peace or whether they must act to eradicate them.
"As we have all witnessed in the last two years, the world can turn upside down in a matter of a few years," Pratt says in an interview promoting the film, which takes place at Universal Studios Los Angeles.
"As the study of dinosaurs expands and goes deeper, we discover that the threat is not only that they will run free and devour people, but the enormous scale of possible extinction of humans, the collapse of our food sources and other effects of apocalyptic waves of terror that could soon endanger the world. "It is very topical that concerns the greed of corporations, the ethical duty of science and also our responsibility to protect all creatures that live with us on earth."
A disaster movie with an environmental agenda?
"Ultimately, the message is clear. It is our duty to take care of the planet in which we are hosted. Each of us can do a better job and not allow fateful decisions to be linked to greed and material wealth. .
Were you a fan of the original film?
"Absolutely, as a teenager I really liked 'Jurassic Park', and I remember how I looked up to the three stars before even getting into the game idea life. Now that I'm an actor and an adult, I feel like I'm fulfilled a dream and got to share screen time with them. "The goddesses praised like good wine, and in the current film they are at their peak. The whole project is like the Grand Finale in a fireworks show."
In "New World", Goldblum, Darren and Vanil return for the first time together to the characters they originally played.
But the main screen time is spent by Pratt in the film alongside Bryce Dallas Howard ("Help"), who plays Claire, the protagonist next to him who has become the object of his love - the one who ran the park and has since founded a dinosaur protection association.
The two adopted into their shared home the girl Maisie, Lockwood's granddaughter, whom he actually cloned from his late daughter's DNA.
For the interview, Pratt shows up in a relaxed look: a buttoned black Lewis shirt, a devilish blush reinforced with gel, and light bristles that accentuate his green eyes and sharpen the jaw line.
He puts it in a representative and meticulous manner, out of respect for the corporation, and therefore the spirit of the nonsense and jokes he used to pull out in interviews in the past are less noticeable.
"It's hard to predict where the corporation will go next without guessing and joking," he says.
"I've heard people who want to see a combination of 'shooter world' and 'fast and furious.'
What is it like to play a parent for the first time?
"I really enjoyed playing Owen, because he's much louder than me. I think parenting is a necessary and right step in his development. The dynamic of the romantic tension from the previous films has now become something new. "Hot and with wonderful sparks of elegant sensitivity. We will remain the parents who are invested in a girl's life."
And yet, most of the scenes you share with "dinosaurs".
"When actors describe their profession as a work of art, it's interpreted as condescension - so sorry in advance. But I bring experience working with visual effects. "You've done it before. You learn how to make eye contact, keep a focused look in a certain direction and create a successful facial expression, when in practice you are talking to a tennis ball. And that, my friend, is the art of the game."
In "The World of the Shooter: A New World."
"Today it's enough for me to sit in an armchair in the living room at home," Photo: United Universal
"Moving away from technologies"
Pratt, 43, divorced in 2017 from his first wife, comedian Anna Perry, who is remembered from the parody film series "Dead to Scream" and the sitcom "From Who."
Rumor has it that Pratt had an affair with Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence on the set of their joint film "The Passengers", until Lawrence publicly refuted it.
Even before he was finally divorced, Pratt had an affair with Katherine Schwarzenegger, 32, a self-help book author and daughter of Austrian star and journalist Maria Schreiber, a descendant of the Kennedy family known in the U.S. socio-political aristocratic dynasty. They married in June 2019 and had two daughters. , A 2-year-old night and Eloise who was born three weeks ago.
Pratt has a 9-year-old son named Jack from his marriage to Paris, who was born prematurely and suffered from brain hemorrhage, which led to developmental delays during his childhood.
Last November, he posted an overflowing post on Instagram about his new wife, whom he met at their joint church, and among other things thanked her for giving him a "beautiful and healthy daughter."
On social media, they rushed to attack Pratt for insulting the dignity of his eldest son and his mother.
The next day he uploaded a video in which he shared the difficult feelings that accompany him, without being explicitly required to the circumstances, and explained how belief in God "strengthened and lifted me up again."
These were not the only times the networks went out against Pratt.
Five years ago he complained in an interview that the working class in America did not have enough representation in cinema - a statement that was perceived as detached and false.
Pratt apologized.
Two weeks later he was criticized for uploading a video in which he called on his followers to turn up the volume and not rely on subtitles.
This time, too, he apologized in sign language for the statement, which was perceived as offensive to the hard of hearing public.
On top of that, he also "snatched" on the net for wearing a T-shirt with the American flag and the caption "Do not tread on me," which were identified as the nationalist slogan of the far right in the US (although the football team and Metallica also use the phrase).
And if all that wasn’t enough, he waged a media confrontation with transgender actor Elliott Page (known as Alan Page) who claimed that the church that Pratt attends apparently incites hatred and homophobia.
Pratt responded by saying that "in my church the doors are open to everyone, including me as a divorced man, contrary to what is written in the Torah. They have helped me with love and support and in many cases do so regardless of gender, race or sexual preference."
Either way, during the Corona closures a poll ran on Twitter in which tweeters crowned Pratt as the most hated Chris in Hollywood.
"The magic moments in my life are as far away from the technologies as possible. I spend time on a farm I own in Washington state, alongside the people closest to me," he says.
"There they receive me as I am, without all kinds of masks and filters, Chris before makeup. We raise sheep on the farm, and I get excited every time a lamb is born. It does me good for the soul, to take a break in the northern region bordering Canada, in winter, when everything is snowy and beautiful.
"I have always been an ardent supporter of environmental protection, and I most enjoy hanging out. It amazes me that all sorts of environmental principles have become controversial in our world. I can not imagine anyone in favor of air pollution. But I learned that people have a lot of sensitivities and need to be careful. "And there are people who claim, for example, that hunters or fishermen rob nature. They do not understand their part in conservation. I hope I will pass on these hobbies to the next generation as well."
His father-in-law, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is an ardent supporter of young Swedish activist Greta Tonbury, and he even arranged an electric car for her.
"And my main car on a daily basis is a Tesla. The future is electric driving."
How was your acquaintance with Arnold?
"Well, there's the first time I met Arnold and there's the first time I met my wife's father," he laughs.
"As a child I was a fan of his, and the first time we met, beyond the smoke and masks, I discovered a real and warm person, who is also a great father. I have great respect for him and appreciate him very much."
dcaspi@goldenglobes.org
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