Chris Pratt Says a Hawaii Restaurant Encounter Launched His Career

Pratt recalled the encounter in an Instagram post. When he recognized Chong at the restaurant, he went to her table and said, “Hey, you’re a movie star! What are you doing here?” During their conversation, she asked whether he could act. He had no experience, but said he could and asked her to cast him in her movie.

Pratt had no phone of his own, so he gave Chong his friend Mike’s number. A few days later, Mike told him someone had called; it was Chong. She sent Pratt a 120-page script to practice for the horror comedy “Cursed 3.” He read it three times in a row and auditioned for the role of Devon, which he landed. Chong promised to fly him from Hawaii to Los Angeles for filming.

“I had about $60 to my name, a bag of clothes, and some rollerblades,” Pratt recalled. He said he would “forever be grateful to Rae for taking a chance on a kid working at a shrimp restaurant.”

Pratt has also credited his older brother, Cully, with inspiring him to act. In a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, he said watching their mother’s reaction to Cully performing in a play and musical over Christmas prompted him to consider acting. Years later, Pratt initially turned down “Guardians of the Galaxy,” worried about repeating a poor audition for “G.I. Joe,” he told Esquire in 2014. He eventually took the role of Peter Quill after getting in shape.