Chris Pratt Recalls Failed Marvel Auditions Before ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
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Chris Pratt may have starred as Peter Quill/Star-Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, but he admits he didn’t have the best luck when auditioning for Marvel films before landing the leading role.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, Pratt reflected on his previous “rough run with Marvel” and losing out on roles in various films including Thor.
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“I auditioned for them all. I had a rough run with Marvel,” Pratt told Kimmel. “I auditioned for Thor, but not even to be Thor — but to be one of the sidekick guys, and I didn’t get a callback. Usually they give you a little bit of feedback, and I remember the casting director goes, ‘Wow. You really made a big choice there.’ Which is code for being like: ‘Hey, dial back the acting there, guy.'”
He said that after failing to continuously land a role, “it got to the point where I was never gonna audition for Marvel again. I was like, ‘This is stupid, I’m never gonna be in a Marvel movie.'”
When Kimmel asked which Marvel movies he specifically auditioned for, Pratt said “all of them.” He continued, “Anything that came out that needed a guy that even remotely looked like me, I auditioned for in some way or another. And I would either submit a tape and they would say ‘No, we don’t need to see him,’ or I would get there and see them, they’d go, ‘No, that’s the last time we need to see you.'”
“And it was not only just Marvel things but there have been a lot of heroic characters in various films,” he added. “Not DC characters, but like, you know, Star Trek or Avatar. Anything that was like, ‘This guy walks in and he’s got the ‘it’ factor.’ Over and over again I was like, ‘Well, I definitely don’t have that ‘it’ factor they’re looking for because they don’t even want me to come back.'”
Kimmel then suggested that it turns out Pratt had the “it” factor after all if he landed the role of Star Lord.
When reflecting on his audition for Star Lord in The Hollywood Reporter’s April 26 cover story, Pratt recalled director James Gunn stopping him in the middle of his audition and telling him, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re blowing it. This is the moment right now. You just need to stop doing whatever you’re doing and just be real. Just be you.”
He explained that internally he kept thinking, “you’re blowing it, you’re blowing it.”
Things took a positive turn when Gunn had Dave Bautista and Pratt improv together. After noticing their chemistry, Pratt ended up landing the lead role.
The third and final installment of Pratt’s Guardians, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, releases on May 5.
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