Making it in Hollywood: An Intimate Look at Chris Pratt's Journey

I have a plan. You've got a plan. I have part of a plan. I actually had to get rescued one time by the girl I was dating. Oh, no. Yeah. My brother and I both were gonna be a stuntman team, and we would throw each other down the stairs to practice. I'd walk around and be like, "Hi, I'm from Meineke. Here you go. 4 oil changes, $20. Pretty great, right? Cash, check, or credit card today? And we'll take that. No? Okay.

Fuck you, too, sir." He's an American actor and one of my personal favorites. He achieved leading man status after starring in The Lego Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy. In 2015, he was named by Time magazine one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.

All right, so I'm just gonna meditate for 20 minutes and then we'll get this going.

He's Chris Pratt, and here's our take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 2 is our personal favorite, and we would love to know what really hit a home run for you. And make sure to stick around till the end to hear my special message to Chris Pratt.

I have a plan. You've got a plan? I have part of a plan. What percentage of a plan? I don't know, 12%.

12%?

That's a fake laugh. It's real. Totally fake. That is the most real authentic hysterical laugh of my entire life because that is not a plan. I am Groot. So what? It's better than 11%. What the hell does that have to do with anything? Thank you. Groot's the only one of you who has a clue. Oh. You come to Hollywood and you're chasing this dream. You want to be an actor, you know? Like, there's not a ton of milestones that are crystal clear that you know what they look like. Because for the most part, the things that are gonna help you get to your goal are movies that haven't been written yet. They're jobs that haven't existed yet. You're kind of giving yourself over to this thing saying like, "Please, I don't wanna be a waiter anymore. I wanna be an actor," you know? And so there's very few things that are crystal clear, like images of what you would want. One of them is to work with an icon, to work with somebody like a Steven Spielberg. And so that, to me, was one of my goals. You wouldn't even want to say it out loud because it'd be so ridiculous to say it. What do you want to do, kid? Well, I want to work with Steven Spielberg. They'd be like, I don't know. Some jobs you learn by going to college, and they give you an education, then you bring that to your work. And some jobs you learn by just being on the job. And from Cursed Part 3 on, all the way up to Jurassic World, my knowledge of how to be on a set, how to act, and how to handle myself on set and approach work is continuing to grow. I've learned a lot on every job. It would be smart when on a job to be a sponge. Pick somebody and learn from them. I'm getting to the point now where I have more experience than a lot of the people that are on the set, and I'm actually at a point where I can teach other people, so that's pretty cool too. So another thing is you're riding horses. Yeah, I'm riding a ton of horses.

Is this a skill you had previous to this film?

Oh, gosh, no. I have been— I'm bad, bad. I guess that's how I would describe my horse riding skill.

Would the horses agree?

Do you think they can sense your— Most definitely. Okay. Yep, those horses, they can sense it. And they see me and I'm a big guy and they're like, all right, buddy, you don't get on me and not know how to ride. You're too heavy to carry around if you don't know how to ride. And I get on there, I'm like, howdy, cowboy. And they're like, ah, shit. But I— So in your whole career, you'd never had to ride a horse for anything? Never for any kind of movies, no. I was embarrassed on horses a few times in my life growing up, so I had a contentious relationship with the equine.

And was it just that you lacked a fundamental understanding of how horses work?

I treated them like jet skis. OK, gotcha. I was like, I know, I'm just going to jump on you and hit the gas and you go, right? And they're like, I'm a living being. I'm going to crush you now. OK, got it. I just didn't fully put together that it was a living animal, breathing being. Why would you? Why would you? Who gives a shit? But I would just jump and say, And also my confidence would quickly outgrow my skill, like in almost everything in my life. Okay.

So you only need to do something for a second to think, I got it.

To think I got this. Right. Yeah. Oh, so this— so you hit it with this and it walks? Gonna hit it real hard and make it sprint. Okay. Yeah. And then, yeah, I actually had to get rescued one time by the girl I was dating.

Oh, no.

Yeah. Were you on— both of you were on horses? We were on horses. We were on this beach. It was supposed to be romantic. And then the horse just took off running. And I— my feet came out of the stirrups. And my feet were up in the air. And my— I was holding the very end of the reins. And my head was bouncing off of the back of the horse's ass. I was seconds from death. This thing is going about 40 miles an hour down a rocky beach. I was like, this is it. I'm going to die. And I hear, ah, yeah. And then the girl just like— just totally rides up and saves the day. She had to like grab my reins and calm the horse. Ah! And I was just like, that was it. And that moment we broke up in my head. And like, it just, it was like— Absolutely, yeah, you can't— In her head too, she was like, yeah, I used to like you, but it's over, yeah.

You are a stuntman at heart.

Yeah, that's what I wanted to be when I grew up when I was a kid. I wanted to be a stuntman. And my brother and I, both were going to be a stuntman team. And we would throw each other down the stairs to practice and never get injured. We would just fall out of trees and hit each other with the car or fall off a bike or do cool stunts. And so the fact that I get to do some stunts— I shouldn't say that I do all my stunts. I have Joe Baccaro, who's an excellent stuntman. And we have a great stunt crew that works really hard on our show. But when they write something physical in, like a physical comedy bit, I'll usually try one or two. On my own to do, and that's really fun. What I think is so cool about the Guardians of the Galaxy is it opens up the universe. So like, instead of like taking these new things and bringing them right back to the stories we already know, I think it's like, open it up. Like, see what other corners of the galaxy we can discover. Bring in characters like that weren't in— you know, bring in characters that were from some of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Like, explore Yondu. Explore the origins more of these characters. And if it is Thanos, explore the Infinity Gauntlet. Like, how many of these stones is he going to get? And who does that open up? Like, instead, the universe expands, you know? And looking out on it, we want to take these characters and bring them into the Avengers. And we want to, like, have them be all in the same movie together. It's like, no, fuck that. Make 100 movies. You know what I mean? Yeah. If they end up crossing over, great. I lived in Maui. Maui, yeah.

But you didn't live in a fancy way.

Yeah. Yeah. I lived in a van in Maui for about a year when I was 19.

Yeah.

Yeah. And so—

That van. Right there.

Is that the van? Wow. Would that be you in the van? That's me. And that's, that's literally the script that got me out of Maui. That script is for Cursed Part 3, the movie that I got paid $700 to do that. $700? I know. I was like, score! I lived in a van. I was like, yeah, to act. Okay, you know, that lasted—

that $700 lasted me 1 Yeah, I bet if they didn't know you lived in a van, you would have gotten more money.

But it was like, anything— you give him $400, he'll take it.

So then you went back to shoot this movie, Jurassic World. How cool is that to go back and shoot a giant, big blockbuster when you lived in a van?

It's so surreal and one of those weird full circle things that happens in life. Like, when I was there, I mean, I was having the time of my life. At 19 years old, just like living in a car with my friend. And, uh, so—

oh, there was another guy?

Yeah, I had a roommate. Yeah, well, yeah, so it wasn't lonely. It was pretty awesome. There was two of us. So what attracted you to the, um, character of Star-Lord? You know, for me, what I got really excited about was that this is an Earthling. This is a kid who was 9 years old, just like me, In 1988, I was 9 years old and so was he. So you gotta think, this is a kid who saw Star Wars. This is a kid who saw Indiana Jones and saw Back to the Future and Footloose and all the movies that I loved when I was a kid. So if he gets— if it were me and I was him and, you know, something tragic happened and then immediately after I was transported to space and essentially given a spaceship and a an opportunity to become whoever the hell I wanted to be, and it was based on this ideology that's built on '80s pop icons, I would be exactly who Peter Quill is in space. And I would try to create Star-Lord, and I would want everyone to call me Star-Lord, and no one would, and it would be like little hints of all these wonderful heroes from the movies that I watched as a kid. So that got me really excited. That got me excited that I could kind of just play play. I could kind of be just really approaching it from an acting standpoint, try to ground this thing in some reality. I mean, we're out in space, it's so fantastical and, and, uh, in such a fantasy. But you know, how would it really be? I mean, you have to sort of approach these things as in trying to thread your own reality into it. And so that was what got me so excited, was like, this guy is me. It was It's me, man. That's what got me. Thank God, cuz if I have to act, it's, it's going to— I'm going to blow it. Drop it! Uh, hey, drop it now! Hey, cool, man. No problem, no problem at all. How do you know about this? I don't even know what that is. I'm just a junker, man. I was just, just checking stuff out. You don't look like a Junker, you're wearing rabbit— It's just the outfit, man. Ninja Turtle, you better stop poking me. What is your name? My name is Peter Quill, okay? Dude, chill out. Move! Why? Ronin may have questions for you. Hey, you know what? There's another name you might know me by. Star-Lord. Who? Star-Lord, man. Legendary outlaw. Guys, move! Forget this. When I was 18, I— or 17, I graduated high school and I moved out and became a door-to-door salesman selling Kirby vacuum cleaners. No, selling much lower priced items, coupons for businesses in the service industry. 4 oil changes for $20, 3 or 4 trips to a day spa for $35. You're selling a pack? A packet? Yeah, it was just— no, just one coupon.

Oh.

I'd walk around and be like, "Hi, I'm from Meineke. Here you go. 4 oil changes, $20. Pretty great, right? Cash, check, or credit card today? And we'll take that for—" No? Okay. Fuck you too, sir. At least you didn't sick your dog on me. Couple doors slammed in your face? Oh, God, yeah. Well, I did the job for about a year and a half. Jesus. Got really good at it, was Salesman of the Year for the company. Shut the fuck up. And got a free trip to Jamaica. What? Yeah, I was— I became a manager within 6 weeks. I had a crew. I was the perfect mixture of enthusiasm and size and naivete. Yeah, to answer an ad that says, do you like rock and roll music? Do you want to make money? I was like, holy Yes, I do. So what's this rock music? Okay, you're selling coupons? Sweet. No, no, you don't— they don't sell coupons. We're in advertising. Oh, okay. Um, so anyways, I opened my own business in Colorado when I was 19 and just lost my ass. Point being, high turnover rate in Seattle. We went from door-to-door, year and a half, year and a half, trip to Jamaica, trip to Jamaica. How did we get to Colorado? The whole point is if you do well, one day you can have your own office. Ah, we'd like you to run the office in Colorado. Yes, which I did, but failed miserably. They put a lien on my minivan. Pretty bad. But backing up to answer how I got into stand-up comedy, there was a really high turnover rate in Seattle. We just like, one or two new guys a week who would end up quitting by the end of the week. A lot of the money that you make is just from them like, selling 3 or 4 and then leaving. 'Cause it's just the shittiest fucking job anybody's ever fucking done. It's great prep for being an actor in terms of— Lying? In terms of lying, walking into a room feeling comfortable and having thick skin. There's no better— Wow, thick skin for sure. Oh my God. To face all that rejection. Oh yeah, people now are like, God, I just can't handle all the rejection as an actor. I'm like, fuck you, dude. They invite you there for an audition. You're not like sneaking in some side door to try to sell something. For set, you know, anyways, so I can, you can tell me I'm as fat as I want, or you know, or as you want, you can tell me anything you want and it's not gonna hurt my feelings. I've got really thick skin from being a door-to-door salesman. Can we just talk about the workout regimen? I'm very curious to know what you were doing, what you were eating.

Really?

Yes. Was it just like turkey patties or chicken or what? That's it, I only ate turkey. No, I just eat turkey every day with gravy. No, um. Yeah, it was a really— it's hard to— what I should do is I should write the whole thing down and give it to people because it takes— Please. It took a long time. There wasn't any trick to it or any secret to it. It's just a matter of getting after it. That's the problem is people want to know what the secret is. The secret is you can't do it in a month. Thank you. I like that though. It takes 8 months. And/or a year or a lifetime to— of consistency, working out every single day and eating properly and truly feeding yourself, not starving yourself, but giving yourself proper nutrition to heal. You have to burn off all the crap you've put in your body, and then you have to replace it with really good food and fuel. And it takes a long time, but really, 8 months is not that long. I mean, what were you doing in May? Yeah, exactly, that was yesterday, right? And when you're looking back, 8 months goes by really quickly. When you're looking forward, it seems like a lot. It's crazy, it's a long prospect. Even 8 hours can be a long time. But it just takes a little bit of consistency, and time is gonna go by just as fast whether you're doing it or not. So who do you want to be 8 months from now? You want to be in good shape? Then get on it today. And this is, uh, us Let's talk about this, this whole, your physicality. Do we need to talk? I mean, is there anything to say? Flex, flex, come on, flex, flex. Was it over there? I mean, everybody's been talking about that for the last year.

What have they been saying, Matthew? Oh, they've been saying all kinds of good stuff.

Ooh, all right. Like what? Be specific. But here's the thing. Do you enjoy this attention? Are you sick of it yet? No. No, he hates attention. I hate attention. It's so hard.

You actually have something in common with Channing.

Oh, oh, just one thing? Oh, yes. Well, recently—

This is true.

It is true. It's true, but it's sort of— it's not really true. It's true. I, like, when I was a kid, I was in a small town. I was a stripper for a little while. For a little while. Oh no, no, no, no, it's not, uh, it was, it was very low rent. I was like, uh, I was like, uh, the very, very low rent Magic Man.

How much would you, how much would you make?

Oh, $40 a pop. Uh-huh. I did it 3 times. That's why nowadays everybody want to talk, they got something to say, but nothing comes out when they move the lips. Just a bunch of gibberish. Zack, they forgot about Dre. So what do you say to somebody you hate? What? Anyone trying to make trouble, you wait. Want to resolve things, you wait. We'll just study your tape of NWA. Shut up, man. One day I was walking by with the Walkman on when I caught a guy giving an awkward nod. Strangling him off with the parking lot, you know. My head weighs upwards of 85 pounds. I was a 16-pound baby. My mom carried me to full term plus 8 months. I was born at 17 months with a full head of hair, a full head of teeth.

Yeah, so show me your GQ pose.

What's it look like?

That's not what your cover looked like. Oh, it was like this.

It really wasn't. Yeah, something like that.

It was a little not as lunatic.

Yeah, I was doing this thing I called staring into middle space. Oh, is that how you guys get that look? Yeah, it's like right here. Right where? Right here.

Can't see it. Yeah, wow, that's really good.

Yeah, no big deal. People's Sexiest Man Alive 2015. Is that what you think? Yes! Oh my God, well he's my Sexiest Man Alive for sure. Oh, um, that's, uh— Don't be modest. Oh, don't be modest? I deserve it, dadgummit! If anyone deserves it. It is I. I mean, it's you. No, yes, it is you. No. I think we're going to go with—

You're saying I look like a man?

No, I think it now is time. It's finally time that they crown a woman as Sexiest Man. Favorite animal? Ooh. That's a tough one. It changes day to day. I would say tiger. Oh, OK. Favorite vegetable? Mm, tiger. Well, you're not actually inside the body of a raccoon. Not this time. Nor are you inside a tree. Not necessarily. Both. I have been inside of both. You have? Oh!

So, uh, yeah.

What is your beauty regimen when you are voice acting? Oh, it's the same as my regular regimen. Which is a high sodium diet. A lot of salt and soy sauce on everything. Also a lot of salt and soy sauce on my face in the morning. Just so you like, just blow it up. I think it's important to have my eyes be as close together as possible. 'Cause deep down inside everyone wants the Cyclops vision. So if I can fatten the rest of my face, it brings the eyes closer together for that, for that thing that everyone's just naturally drawn to. So I fatten the face up with a lot of beer and empty carbs after midnight. As much as I can. Like, the trainer was like, if you're gonna do beer and empty carbs, limit it to 12 beers and make sure you do it after midnight. Your outlaw name in the film is Star-Lord.

Mm-hmm. Okay, so in real life, if you had to pick a name to represent you as an outlaw in outer space, what would you pick?

The Boner Doctor. Hey, now! First thing that came to mind. I don't know why.

Do you help the boners, or do you— Full service.

Full service. I'm a boner for hire. I also can, you know, I can lend my medical expertise to your boner. Sounds good. Should you be able to pay the price. The doctor is in, people. I did bachelorette parties in my hometown. Yeah, my friend's grandma had me. Did you show up as a cop or something like that? No, I couldn't afford a cop outfit on my budget. No, I would just wear, I wasn't good. I would just like slowly, awkwardly dance and then go down to my shorts and they would be like, oh, here. Oh, this is— it wasn't ever crazy. They just—

they'd hate it all the way or something.

We said 40? Here you go. There you go. So it's not like— it was not sexy. I got it. Nice. Oh, yeah. I also got— Some dude's briefcase. I believed in you, buddy, but you should put that back. How'd you get this? Fucking hilarious. That's not something that props can fix. Sorry, I'm out. I don't give a fuck if it's dark or not. Harder than me trying to talk and dodge, but I'm drunk as fuck. Right next to it, you monkey struck in a two-car garage, walking out with two broken legs, trying to walk it off. Fuck you too, bitch. Call the cops, I'm gonna kill you when them loud-ass Barking dogs, and when the dog came out, he traced her next to a burned-down house with a can full of gas and a handful of matches. It's the word found out right here, 'cause they hear about it now. It's The Chronic 2, start today, tomorrow's new, and I'm still local enough to choke you to death with the Tarleton 2. Tickle, tickle, tickle, Slim Shady. I had a set of twin babies and Mercedes-Benz with the windows up to the temp rose up to the mid-'80s. I call them men ladies, side dock, but I've been crazy. It's okay, go to him. Can you do any good impressions? Um, sort of. Oh, there's this show in London called TOWIE. It's kind of like the Jersey Shore of England, I think. And so I can do an impression of some of those people. Will you? Yeah, it's like, it was like, honestly, it was like Michael, like, like, like, what happened? Like, did Lance cheat on me when he was in Ibiza? Because, like, seriously, like, he's like, before he left, before he left, he was like, oh, like, whatever, like, when I'm with you or whatever, I'm like, homesick. I was like, I'm not homesick. What am I, your mother? Fuck off, Chris Pratt.

Oh. Hey, here we go. Okay, I'm really excited. We're gonna be sending a special message to Chris Pratt. Here it is. Chris, man, I love following you on Snapchat. You're really inspirational. Just the fact that you're so down to earth. Your snaps are weird and they're funny. I love a lot of your movies. Movies and TV shows that you've done, I've watched, whether it's Park Room Recreations, whether it's Guardians of the Galaxy. I can't wait for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 to come out. And I think the reason that I follow you is because you're a super hard worker, but at the same time, as much fame as you have, you're just as relatable as anyone else. And that's something that I really find endearing, and I try to pass on in my classes as an instructor here for dance. Side note, if you ever want to learn salsa, you're in Toronto, you're welcome to drop by our school, Toronto Dance Salsa. I would love to give you a private lesson with you and your wife. Hey Chris, it would make my year if you could send me just a quick "Hey Alex" on Snapchat. Now you just have to make sure to say it right. It's Alex with a KS, not an X. You pronounce it the same way, but it's just— just make sure to remember it's a KS. But the reason it would make my year is because I think of you really as a real humble guy and a guy who's hardworking. And when I'm teaching teaching class, no matter how good I get at whatever I do, I always try to be relatable to people and just getting that message from you is gonna motivate me to continue to stay connected to my followers, the students and the people who follow me on Snapchat to make it an awesome experience for them like I've been watching you and you've made for me. So I would really love to do that, you're gonna see a snapcode somewhere around me at some point, I hope to hear a good shoutout from you, have an awesome day and continue to believe. So thank you guys so much for watching.

I made this video because Annie, Margaret, and Alex asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, please leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did Chris say that really inspired you or made you think? What was your favorite rule? Please leave it in the comments below and I'm going to join in the discussion. And if anybody has any kind of connection to Chris, I know, I know, I I know it would really be special and meaningful to Alex if you could forward it on to him so he can see it. That's it for me today. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.