Long before he was Star-Lord, Chris Pratt was a waiter with no phone, about $60 to his name, and a van for a home. The Guardians of the Galaxy star has opened up about the unlikely chance encounter that launched his Hollywood career — and it all started at a shrimp restaurant in Hawaii.
In a recent Instagram post, shared alongside a throwback photo from his very first film, Cursed Part 3, Pratt, 47, looked back on those early days. “Before Hollywood, I was living in a van in Hawaii and waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company,” he wrote, as reported by Page Six.
His big break walked right through the restaurant door. Actress and director Rae Dawn Chong came in one day, and Pratt did not hesitate. “Naturally, I went up to her table and said, ‘Hey, you’re a movie star! What are you doing here?’” he recalled. When she asked whether he could act, his answer was an enthusiastic, unprintable yes — followed by a request to be put in her movie.
There was one small problem. “She asked for my phone number,” the Parks and Recreation alum explained. “The only problem was I didn’t have one. So I gave her my buddy Mike’s number instead.”
A few days later, Chong called. Pratt went to pick up the script and read “all 120 pages three times in a row.” It was, he said, the first script he had ever read. “My character’s name was Devon, and I remember thinking, ‘Sweet! I could totally play a Devon!’”
By the time he arrived at the audition, Pratt had the script memorized, and Chong offered him the role. Production was in Los Angeles, which might have been a dealbreaker for a broke young waiter. “I had about $60 to my name, a bag of clothes, and some rollerblades,” he said. “Then Rae told me they’d fly me out. And I remember thinking right then and there, my life just changed forever. I’m going to be an actor.”
Pratt described Cursed Part 3 as a “low-budget horror comedy that opened the door to Hollywood” for him, and he made sure to credit the woman who gave him that shot. “I’ll forever be grateful to Rae for taking a chance on a kid working at a shrimp restaurant,” he wrote. “Everybody starts somewhere, and this is where it all began for me.”
It is quite the origin story given where he ended up. Pratt went on to play Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation, Peter Quill in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, and Owen Grady in the Jurassic World franchise, and he also starred in The Terminal List. Page Six notes his estimated net worth now sits at around $100 million.
Life looks very different today. Pratt and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, who married in 2019, share three children: Lyla Maria, 6; Eloise Christina, 4; and Ford Fitzgerald, 1. Pratt is also dad to 14-year-old Jack, whom he shares with ex-wife Anna Faris. The couple’s property portfolio has grown too, including a Brentwood home bought in 2023 that is being renovated while the family lives in Montecito.
From a van in Hawaii to the top of the box office, Pratt’s throwback is a reminder that Hollywood careers sometimes begin with nothing more than nerve and a borrowed phone number.
Source: Page Six.
