Chris Pratt on Hanging in Hotel Beds with Anna Faris, Being Hungry, and Coming to Australia
Chris Pratt isn't hungry right now.
"I just ate a chicken breast with a green juice," he tells me by phone from Tokyo. "Really went crazy, I know."
For the past month, the 37-year-old goofball-turned-action hero has been documenting his strict movie diet in a series of viral Instagram videos titled simply 'What's My Snack'.
"It started as kind of a joke, but now that I've swept the nation with a whole new trend I guess I'm just going to have to stay on top of it," he laughs. "Big shout out to my 'What's My Snack' peeps! You can expect more tasty snacks and hopefully I'll keep it going – but there's also the chance that I'll just never do it again."
Finding the time could be a challenge. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in theatres Anzac Day, Jurassic World 2 out next year, and Guardians 3 already on the slate for 2019, the Minnesota-born superstar shows no signs of slowing down.
Here, Chris opens up exclusively to TheFIX about travelling the world with his wife of eight years, Anna Faris, parenting their adorable four-year-old son Jack, and what it will take to finally get him to visit Australia.
Star-Lord is back! How did it feel stepping back into your Guardians shoes?
It was great! We really picked up where we left off. [Guardians director] James Gunn and I have such an awesome working relationship, and the script was so good. I hate to say this, but it was easy. It just really flowed.
Your wife Anna joined you on this press tour. Have you two had the best time?
We have a really good time travelling together. We've spent many an hour laughing in a hotel bed. It's sort of a circus that we're on, and we definitely stop to smell the roses, or the cherry blossoms as it were in Tokyo.
Still, those trans-Pacific journeys can be rough. Any travel disasters?
We joke that if we were ever on The Amazing Race we would make it half an episode before starving to death. But you get really taken care of on these things – We're completely surrounded by people whose job it is to make sure that we have our passports, that we show up on time, that we know where to go, and we get ushered to and fro.
All it would take is for all of our representation to go on strike and we would die. We would die of thirst in some airport in Singapore. We just wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. And we would die.
Now that Jack is four, does he understand that you are Star-Lord?
Oh, he knows that I'm Star-Lord. The other day he walked up to some kids and said, 'My dad is Star-Lord!' I was like, 'Jack, Jack. We need to work on that. That's not how we start conversations with people.'
It doesn't really mean that much to him yet – hopefully it never will because I just want to be Dad. He doesn't have a lot against which to weigh it because it's just always been his whole life that Mum and Dad are on TV.
Does he ever dress up as your characters?
He's always wearing different costumes or dressing up. I don't know if it's because he's aloof or cool – or maybe he's just being authentic and Star-Lord isn't his favourite – but every time I ask him if Star-Lord is his favourite, he says no. And then he says he likes Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Batman.
I even think now he's totally going all DC [Comics] just to be cool. He doesn't even like Marvel now. He only likes DC.
Your Guardians co-star Sean Gunn is best known for playing Kirk on Gilmore Girls. Were you familiar with his work there?
I was! I was on a WB show [Everwood], and we filmed at the same time as Gilmore Girls, so we toured the same teen drama network parties. I don't know if I actually ever met Sean, but I knew of the show and his work from way back in the day.
So...are you a Gilmore Girls fan?
I wouldn't call myself a fan per say, but I have watched it, and it's really good. But I haven't gotten swept up in every episode. I haven't binge watched Gilmore Girls yet.
Speaking of Everwood, it's the 15th anniversary of its premiere this year! Any chance of a reboot?
I've never ruled it out. I certainly love all my family from Everwood, and I miss them. I can't believe it's been 15 years. That's crazy!
Music plays such a big role in Guardians. What three songs would be on the soundtrack to your life right now?
Maybe the theme song to The Karate Kid by Peter Cetera ['Glory of Love'], and then 'Brothers On a Hotel Bed' by Death Cab for Cutie, and then 'Whisky and You' by Chris Stapleton. These are just based on the fact that I'm in a hotel room in Japan.
Mostly, I listen to podcasts lately. I just did this thing called The Six Week Journeyby Judas Smith. I really like that. He's the pastor of City Church in Seattle, and he has an awesome podcast. Of course, Unqualified, as well! Just before Judas would be Anna Faris' Unqualified.
What can you tell us about next year's Jurassic World sequel?
You're going to love it! We're filming it right now. Filmmaker J. A. Bayona -- if you haven't seen his work rush out and see it. He did The Impossible and an awesome movie called A Monster Calls. He's a Spanish fella, and we're in good hands and so is the franchise.
OK, what do we have to do to get you to come to Australia?
You have to hook my friend Jared up with a fiancée. He's convinced he's going to marry an Australian woman, so he keeps telling me that we need to go to Australia for a job — just something so he can accompany me to Australia. So as long as you set him up with a respectable young lady who would want to marry him, then I'll come.
So, what you're saying is he should audition for Married At First Sight?
Yeah, that sounds good! If you can get him on Australia's Married At First Sight, then I'll come.
Watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 trailer:
