Chris Pratt got candid about the worst note a director ever gave him.
During an interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast Jan. 22, the 46-year-old actor spoke about his experience making the movie “Moneyball” and how director Bennett Miller gave him “the worst note and the best note” he’s ever received.
“I was playing first base, and I was supposed to be really frustrated ’cause I couldn’t catch the ball, right? And they had taught me to field for weeks, and I got pretty good,” he said.
“And, so, I was out there competitive, and I’m doing this, and I’m sweating. I’m sweating. He comes up and the way he does, he’s like, ‘Just stop being such an a–hole.'”
CHRIS PRATT AGREED TO THIS ONE CHRISTMAS TRADITION BEFORE MARRYING KATHERINE SCHWARZENEGGER
Pratt said the comment “made me so mad,” but he admitted it was just what he needed to nail the scene, adding “it’s the shot that’s in the movie.”
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star explained that, in the scene, his character is “sitting there, and sweat’s dripping off my nose. And I’m mumbling like ‘f—,'” adding he wasn’t even aware the cameras were rolling.
“That anger was what he wanted to see in me,” he said. “So, he didn’t really mean stop being an a–hole. He just knew how to push my buttons to make the character do something that I don’t do authentically very well, which was anger. And, so, that was one of the best directions I ever got but also one of the worst directions I ever got.”
Pratt portrayed Scott Hatteberg, a real-life former professional baseball player, in the Academy Award-nominated movie. In the film, Hatteberg is struggling to relearn the game after an elbow injury forced him to shift from being a catcher to a first baseman.
The actor recently shared that he was discovered by actress and director Rae Dawn Chong when he was working as a server at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Maui when he was 19. When on the podcast, he shared that a nickname he had as a waiter almost became his stage name.
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“I had a name tag that said ‘Christopher at Bubblegum Shrimp Co.,’” Pratt remembered. “But the ‘PHER’ got rubbed off, so it said ‘Christo.’ And everyone called me Christo for a long time while I was working at Bubba Gump.
“High turnover rate. The new employees thought my name was Christo,” he continued. “And as I navigated being discovered and brought to Los Angeles to follow my dreams, part of me thought in earnest maybe I go as just Christo.”
While he did eventually decide to go by “Chris,” he told SiriusXM’s “Pop Culture Spotlight With Jessica Shaw” in 2022 that “no one calls me Chris,” adding he told his pastor, “It feels weird. It’s not my name. Don’t call me Chris.”
Pratt is married to Katherine Schwarzenegger, the daughter of actor and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the couple share three children: Lyla, 5, Eloise, 3, and Ford, 1. He is also a father to son Jack, 13, whom he shares with ex-wife Anna Faris.
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He recently went viral for sharing the unique gift Arnold gave him and Katherine for Christmas while on “The Graham Norton Show” earlier this month.
“His love language is giving gifts, that’s for sure. He just goes all out,” Pratt said. “This year, one was like a 6-foot by 8-foot portrait painting of all three of my children and him as Santa Claus. And it’s very lifelike, and it’s very big. And it’s him as Santa Claus and then the three kids peering around the Christmas tree seeing him eat a cookie.”
