The huge movie Chris Pratt bombed his audition for: “I did not have ‘that thing'”
These days, it feels like if there’s a major movie with a hideously inflated budget, a feature-length version of a beloved animation in need of a new voice, or a ridiculous sci-fi premise that’s going to die a death on streaming, Chris Pratt will be there, and if this sounds like I’m knocking him, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
To give the Kennedy-by-marriage some credit, he came from rather humble beginnings, such that nobody could have suspected that the lad from Parks & Recreation would one day end up as one of Hollywood’s go-to leading men.
Before his breakout role as Andy Dwyer, his CV was populated with straight-to-TV flicks, bit parts in bad comedies, and a recurring role in The OC; however, had things gone slightly differently, we might have gotten to know his serious side a bit sooner.
Before he was guarding the galaxy, Pratt auditioned for a number of major blockbusters but lost out to his fellow Chris Pine for the part of Captain Kirk in JJ Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek series and, perhaps most notably, was up for the role of Jake Sully in Avatar. As he explained to Entertainment Weekly, however, he knew he wasn’t going to get it either.
“They said they want somebody that has ‘that thing’, that ‘It factor’,” he said, explaining, ”I walked into that room knowing that I did not have that thing, and I walked out thinking I would never have that thing, probably…I figured, I’ll find a way to make money, and if that means I’m playing character roles, that’s terrific. People have to work. I just don’t want it to be at a fucking restaurant.”
The ‘restaurant’ Pratt is referring to is most likely the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, where he was working when he was discovered by the Canadian actor and director Rae Dawn Chong. Prior to this, he’d done various odd jobs to pay the bills, including working as a stripper, but once Rae, daughter of Tommy Chong of Cheech & Chong fame, by the way, cast him in her upcoming film, it was off to the races, but of course, he wouldn’t get his level of fame for another decade or so.
Avatar went on to become the hit to end all hits, becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time and marked the beginning of a seemingly never-ending franchise, so one would think Pratt must have been devastated to have missed out on that. Well, probably not, because the actor who actually got the part of Sully, Sam Worthington, practically fell off the face of the Earth following his supposedly ‘life-changing’ performance.
As for Pratt, he went from strength to strength over the next few years, such that by the time Worthington emerged from the darkness to make The Way of Water, his one-time rival was an infinitely bigger deal than he ever was.
There’s every chance Pratt couldn’t have dodged the Avatar curse, but he’s probably very happy with the way things worked out, playing a character who fell in love with Zoe Saldaña.
