Guardians star Chris Pratt doesn’t care if his films suck, as long as he had a good time making them

Chris Pratt is in red-hot form thanks to the billion-dollar Super Mario Bros. and the epic new Guardians of the Galaxy finale but he also admits he’s had some shockers.

Thanks to his starring roles in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World franchises – not to mention the billion-dollar success of the recent Super Mario Bros. – there’s no question that Chris Pratt is one of the hottest actors on the planet.

But even he knows he has some stinkers on his resume. He’s not naming names, and nor does he much care – as long as he had a good time making them.

“Making movies is really fun,” he says.

“When you get to do it with people that you love, it’s even more fun. That’s the journey, right? The destination, it sometimes sucks. Like, you know, you have this great time with all your friends and you get together and you work hard. And then you see the movie and you’re like, ‘Boy, that movie sucked. But, hey, that was a lot of fun to make it’.”

Pratt hit the jackpot on both counts with Guardians of the Galaxy – not only did he get to work with director James Gunn, and a group of cast mates he would come to regard as family, the 2014 original proved to be a runaway hit.

“With James, it’s been both the journey and the destination have been glorious,” Pratt says. “The films are incredible. I don’t know how he does it.”

Gunn knows exactly how he does it.

Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord and Dave Bautista as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Picture: Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

The secret, he says, to a harmonious and happy set is simple – a strict “no jerks” policy.

“I’ve been really good at hiring non-jerks,” Gunn says. “Not only non-jerks, but people who are actually positive, compassionate, loving, kind people. And so, I’ve just grown incredibly close to these people. I really love them. And it makes making movies a much more pleasant experience.”

Prior to his Guardians success, Pratt was beginning to doubt he’d ever really crack the big time after more than a decade of bit parts and buddy roles in movies and several seasons of playing loveable doofus Andy Dwyer on hit sitcom Parks and Recreation.

By his own admission he’d failed miserably to land parts in other Marvel movies such as Thor, as well as Star Trek and Avatar, the last of which would go on to become the biggest box office hit ever.

But just as Marvel Studios took a chance on a bunch of little-known comic book outliers with the first Guardians film, Gunn and boss Kevin Feige took a punt on Pratt to capture the mix of swagger, charm, comic smarts and action chops to play their leader Peter “Star-Lord” Quill.

Chris Pratt and James Gunn at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 World Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on April 27, 2023. Picture: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney

It turned out to be a match made in heaven: Gunn now describes Pratt as one of his best friends – “we have fun together goofing around and giving each other crap -” and the two movies so far have been critical and financial success and the third is expected to follow suit.

Guardians Of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which opened on Thursday, is likely to be last hurrah for the original team of Pratt, Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon and Groot (voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel respectively). Gunn, who has since switched teams to head up rival comic book outfit DC Studios, thinks his mate has saved the best for last.

Super Mario Bros. has also boosted Pratt’s profile and bank balance.

The movie opens with Pratt’s Quill grief-stricken and fall-off-the-stool drunk at the death of his great love and partner in crime Gamora in Avengers: Endgame (although there’s an alternate version of the character in this movie – it’s complicated). When Rocket’s life is threatened by the megalomaniac scientist who created him, Quill assembles the team for what might be the final time to save him.

“He’s a guy who’s constantly been searching for who he is. And then he found it again in his relationship with Gamora,” says Pratt. “And so, when that’s stripped away from him, he’s a guy who’s realising that all of these various people that he’s found that are Quill, none of them have been the real him. And so, he is, he’s lost. And that probably does mean that he’s sad.”

Katherine Schwarzenegger and husband Chris Pratt at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 World Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on April 27, 2023. Picture: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

Amid the usual jokes and the spectacular action sequences, it’s a darker, bleaker and sometimes more confronting story than previous chapters, with Pratt doing a lot of the heavy lifting to highlight the damaged and lost aspects of the character.

“We really wanted to push him in this movie,” says Gunn.

“I think that Chris is such a talented actor, and he’s got such a raw vulnerability to him when he lets that be present and this movie was about pushing him to that limit. And it’s there on screen. He’s amazing. This is the performance of Chris Pratt’s career. He’s incredible.”

Pratt was also instrumental in ensuring that Gunn got to farewell his passion project in the way he wanted.

The director was fired from the film in 2018 by Disney after some decade-old, off-colour Tweets emerged – and Pratt was among the first to leap to his defence, organising an open letter to the studio asking that he be reinstated.

Chris Pratt has also enjoyed massive success as Owen Grady in the Jurassic World franchise.

The deeply religious A-lister also texted his friend bible verses to buoy his spirits and worked behind the scenes with Saldana to try to get the Marvel bosses to change their minds.

Gunn, who quickly apologised and was devastated both by his words from a decade earlier and their consequences, was genuinely touched by the actions of his loyal cast, which he says ultimately bonded them all closer together when he was rehired the following year.

“The time that I was not attached to this movie was a time in which the cast especially – all of them Chris, Dave, Zoe, Pom, Karen, Vin, Bradley, Sean – they all gathered around me and were so supportive, not only in making sure that I was going to continue doing this series of films, but also just emotionally,” Gunn says.

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“The wonderful people I’m surrounded by, is overwhelming at times and I’m incredibly lucky to have these people around me as I’ve done these films.

“All these people were there for me because we have become – it sounds stupid, it sounds clichéd but people say it because it’s sometimes true – a family. And in this case it’s completely true, there’s no BS to it. We don’t snipe at each other behind the scenes. Nobody’s showing up late to set because they have a big ego. Everybody has completely invested in this process from the beginning and puts their all into it.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is in cinemas now.

Originally published as Guardians star Chris Pratt doesn’t care if his films suck, as long as he had a good time making them