Chris Pratt’s First Acting Break(Photo Credit –Facebook)
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Chris Pratt wasn’t always the Hollywood star we know today. Yep, before Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, Pratt was just a broke guy with big dreams. And guess what? He almost didn’t make it to L.A. because he couldn’t afford a plane ticket.
Pratt grew up in a tiny town called Lake Stevens, Washington. Life wasn’t effortless. His family sometimes relied on food banks to get by. The actor said during an Instagram Live: “I grew up in a small town, we had 7,000 people in our town, and we had some economic hard times, and we had a food bank nearby and I’m not ashamed to say that there were moments when my family would need to eat from a food bank.” So yeah, fame and fortune were still miles away.
After high school, Pratt tried community college but dropped out after one semester. Instead, he packed his bags for Hawaii. But not to live in some fancy resort—he was literally living in a van on the beach.
”I had a friend who was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to come out here,”’ Pratt told Entertainment Weekly. And that’s how he ended up working as a waiter at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (Yes, that place).
Then came his big break—kind of. While serving tables, he met actress Rae Dawn Chong. She was about to direct a film called Cursed Part III. Pratt told her he wanted to be an actor. She didn’t just nod and smile—she actually gave him a role. But there was one tiny problem. Pratt didn’t have enough money to fly to L.A. for the shoot. So Chong stepped.
“I said, ‘I can’t go to L.A., I don’t have any money,’” Pratt recalled on the SmartLess podcast. “She said, ‘Sweetie, we’ll fly you there.’ That was it. And I never went back.” Even though the movie never saw the light of day, Chong still remembers Pratt as a standout. “My movie sucked, but he was awesome,” she told Entertainment Weekly. So, turns out, if it wasn’t for a kind director (and a free plane ticket), Pratt might still be waiting tables. Instead, he’s now flying his own planes.
