Isn’t Chris Pratt just the coolest? Not only does he play a hero in the all new JURASSIC WORLD, he also jumped up to catch a falling speaker at the Los Angeles press conference for the film, protecting a journalist. Check out some of the fun conversation as Pratt tells us about his close call with a moose, and his approach to the character of Owen. Also, make sure you scroll to the end. I’ve included some photos that I took of all the fun decorations and toys they had set up for us to look at!
Steven Spielberg returns to executive produce the long-awaited next installment of his groundbreaking Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World. Colin Trevorrow directs the epic action-adventure based on characters created by Michael Crichton. The screenplay is by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Derek Connolly & Trevorrow, and the story is by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley join the team as producers.
You’re known as an outdoorsman. You go hunting and fishing. Can you talk a little about your experience dealing with animals in the wild that you may have been able to bring to this character, that has an affinity for these wild animals?
CHRIS PRATT: Yes. It’s funny. This is cool. This is a cool story. It’s one of those stories that is true, and it’s one of those stories that I’ll tell forever, and I’m glad that I can tell it to you guys, because it I wasn’t at a press conference I would just be telling it to my buddies… and this is way better. I was on an elk hunt about eight years ago… nine years ago. This is all leading up to something, I promise. I had shot an elk the first day, so my tag was filled. I was on a hunt with these other two guys, Mike and Ian, and they were out in the morning. They didn’t have me come with them because it was a dry time of year. The aspen leaves had fallen, and it was crunchy on the ground, so two less feet in the woods was better, because it was so loud. So, long story short I was at camp… [Leaves from the forrest setting in the back fall, bringing a speaker down. Pratt jumps up to catch the speaker before it could hit a journalist sitting under it. Journalists all cheer and applaud.]
Just look around you. If there’s anything that looks like it could fall and kill you, just be wary! [Laughs] Find an exit strategy now!
So, I’m walking around camp, because they have these things called grouse. They’re these dumb little birds. They’re like a cross between corn, and an animal that I feel like God put them to be here like, “Ah… even the dummies got to eat, so I’ll give you grouse.” I was out to shoot these grouse with the single shot .22… just a tiny little gun, basically a bb gun. So I’m out looking for grouse, and I look up on the hill… and I see a giant… something. The sun is coming up behind this hill, so all I could really see was a silhouette of a giant beast. I assumed it was a monster bull elk. I go back quickly to the tent and say to Ian and Mike over the radio, “Hey… there’s something here. I think it is a huge elk. Stand by. I’m gonna get a better look, but you might want to come back this way, because one of you guys should shoot this big elk.” So, I come back, and I look up, and I don’t see it. Now I’m looking through my binoculars like this [makes binoculars with his hands], and I don’t see this animal. I can’t find him. Meanwhile, I am wearing slippers, pajamas, and I have my little single shot baby gun .22… and then I hear this fshooooosh… and I drop my binoculars, and standing not ten feet from me is a big, mature bull moose. Moose are incredibly dangerous. They kill more people in North America than bears and wolves all combined. Very, very dangerous animals. They’re huge, 1,000 pounds, this thing is monstrous, and I’m thinking to myself, “Oh. I’m going to die right now!” And so, it’s looking at me, [makes stomping noise] running its foot into the ground, and I just don’t look at it in the eyes, because… I don’t know why, I think maybe I heard “don’t look at it in the eyes” or something. And I take a step back, and as I take a step back, it takes a step towards me, and it’s a standoff between me and this giant beast. I take another step back, and it takes another step towards me. I can still smell this creature, it’s so vivid in my brain. It had steam coming out from its nose, You could see it because it’s so cold. I have this little tiny gun, I’m thinking to myself, “What am I going to do? If this thing attacks me, I’m gonna have to stick this little gun somewhere in its eye or something… somewhere to try to shoot it, because there is no way this guns gonna kill a moose. It’s just gonna make it mad. Finally, I take one more step, and instead of taking one step, it takes three steps right at me. And I think I nearly fainted, and then it just turns off, and walks not two feet from me. It didn’t even care who I was, and it just walked off into the wild.
So, if anything from the wild informed me on this movie – when I am doing that scene with the raptors… I told this story to Colin, and I said, “There’s something really scary about having something standing in front of you, and if you step back a few inches, it comes at you a few inches. Like, that suspense building that up informed me a little bit, by that experience I had in the wild. And, all of these answers are going to be just as long… [laughs] Don’t worry. We have plenty of time to get to all of you. We’ll be done in about four days.
In GUARDIANS you play this ultimate badass [Peter Quill] and now you’re playing another badass [Owen] How did you make sure that Owen is different?
CHRIS PRATT: I do feel that it is a different character. I approached it, and always saw it, as a character who is different from Peter Quill. A huge part of that was just Colin’s vision… our director Colin Trevorrow’s vision. He;d always mentioned to me that he had this term called the third rail. The third rail for him… I didn’t grow up in a city with a subway, but apparently in a subway there are, like, three rails, and if you touch one it’ll kill you. So, that was the third rail for me. He had this third rail, which essentially, if I start being goofy, or acting like a dipshit, or going to my normal comedic bag of tricks, some of which I used in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, certainly the character of Andy Dwyer in ‘Parks and Recreation’ is a full embodiment of that type of clowning around… that comedic shtick that I am known for. If I did any of that on this, that was my third rail. So, if I wanted to have any fun with this, it was going to be in my repertoire with Claire. I relished an opportunity to be able to spar with her… kind of get her goad a little bit. That’s where I could have fun. But for the most part, I was deadly serious, and there was a bit of darkness. This is a guy who’s been through something, and it goes back to who would this guy be, who would he be if this were really a job opening, and they needed a person to fill this position.
We decided, we kind of came together and decided that his backstory is that he probably at one point trained dolphins for the navy, and saw what treatment these animals received, and it was not great for the animals. We decided the likelihood that in all the years that he has been working for the park, that this isn’t his first set of raptors, and that all of the raptors didn’t make it through some of the training. These animals died under his watch. They killed each other under his watch. Certain techniques that we tried didn’t work. So, we’ve come a long way, and a lot of these animals have paid the sacrifice for the work that I am doing for this company. That’s pretty serious. There’s not a lot of room for goofing around when you are playing that guy, a guy who’s been through combat… who’s a combat veteran. There’s kind of a darkness, and he lives on an island. He’s chosen to move away from the world, and live on the dark side of an island. All that stuff was interesting and fun to see a character work, and made me want to be someone who is different. I love Peter Quill and I love Andy, and I look forward to playing Peter Quill again. It’s super fun, but this was just something a little different for me.
Which dinosaur was the biggest asshole? Could you outrun that dinosaur in heels like Bryce Dallas Howard?
CHRIS PRATT: Which dinosaur was the biggest asshole? [Laughs] I guess Indominus Rex was a big asshole. Just mean, just a mean dinosaur. But like most assholes, he had a tough upbringing. Kinda feel a little bit bad for him.
But could you out run it like Bryce?
CHRIS PRATT: Likely no. But I did run in heels for the first time while on the James Cordon show, and A.) I kinda liked the way it felt walking in them, and B.) I surprised myself in running in them, kinda like tippy toe running. But I would not be able to outrun the Indominus Rex. But with enough practice, I might get a good forty or fifty feet before I was killed.
Did you know that you would have three franchises to your name?
CHRIS PRATT: Always knew it. [Laughs] I was like, “As soon as I have three franchises to my name…” No, I never would have known. I could not have known. No way. It’s a pretty fine space to be in. So, I am feeling very blessed and overcome with joy.
JURASSIC WORLD is in theaters now
