Chris Pratt is the people’s Chris. Blockbuster movie star. Beloved coworker. Stand-up dad and all-around good hang. So why is Chris Pratt the subject of so many Twitter pile-ons? With three major new projects—Jurassic World: Dominion, The Terminal List, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3—as well as a growing family, the Parks and Rec alum wants to change the narrative. Pratt spoke to journalist Mickey Rapkin for Men’s Health’s July/August cover story, sharing his theories on the stubbornly persistent internet memes, his thoughts on religion, how he developed his sense of humor, and more.
On struggling to understand why some corners of the Internet love to troll him: “You don’t ever wanna get caught complaining or anything. ’Cause I have so many blessings. I consider everything a blessing truly in my life. [But] why are they coming after me?”
On religion: “Religion has been oppressive as fuck for a long time. I didn’t know that I would kind of become the face of religion when really I’m not a religious person. I think there’s a distinction between being religious—adhering to the customs created by man, oftentimes appropriating the awe reserved for who I believe is a very real God—and using it to control people, to take money from people, to abuse children, to steal land, to justify hatred. Whatever it is. The evil that’s in the heart of every single man has glommed on to the back of religion and come along for the ride.”
On still being bothered by the backlash over a recent Instagram post: “I said something like, ‘Find someone who looks at you the way my wife looks at me.’ And then I gave her some shit in the thing and said, ‘But I love you. I’m so thankful for my wife—she gave me a beautiful, healthy daughter.’ And then a bunch of articles came out and said, ‘That’s so cringeworthy. I can’t believe Chris Pratt would thank her for a healthy daughter when his first child was born premature. That’s such a dig at his ex-wife.’ And I’m like, That is fucked up. My son’s gonna read that one day. He’s nine. And it’s etched in digital stone. It really fucking bothered me, dude. I cried about it. I was like, I hate that these blessings in my life are—to the people close to me—a real burden.”
On developing his sense of humor as a defense mechanism in response to his “mean” and “old school” father: “I am a sensitive person. My dad knew that when I was a youngster, and it kind of made him dislike me. Or not dislike me but act like he disliked me—’cause he probably grew up in a world where a guy like that could get eaten alive. And so he wanted to put calluses on me. Early on, I developed humor as a self-defense mechanism—I developed Andy, really. Andy on Parks and Rec was my clown that I had honed my entire life, a guy who is affable, who’s an intelligent person playing a dumb person.”
On how transforming his body helped his career: “I’ve always wanted to have the career I have right now. And a big part of that was just taking this body that I live in, and tuning it up.”
On his most difficult physical transformation: “The first transformation of my body to become Star Lord was the hardest, because I had the furthest to go. I was almost 300 lbs, and never really thought that I would ever be considered a candidate to play one of these sort of action hero kind of roles.”
On the health spectrum he’s lived on from sitcom star to action star: “When I was Andy, I was pretty unhealthy. I can’t believe that I would eat 5 cheeseburgers for lunch… And that was happiness at that time. And now it’s the exact opposite. Now eating is boring, but the times between eating I feel great. Whereas before, eating was fun, but the times between I felt like crap.”
On the importance of health and fitness to play commander of Navy SEALS in The Terminal List “I am under no illusion that I have what it takes to be a Navy SEAL. Very few people on the planet do. That’s why they’re so tough. I had to at least try to create the illusion that I could be someone capable of that.”
[Photo Credit: Peggy Sirota/Men’s Health Magazine]
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