From Comic Book Collector to Star Lord – Interview with Chris Pratt aka Peter Quill

Whether you are watching Chris Pratt play Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy or chatting with the actor one-on-one, there is an undeniable endearing child-like spirit that radiates, lighting up the room or the big screen with an irresistible glow.

Pratt simply makes you want to smile and believe again that good always does trump evil.

Though initially resistant to the idea, it’s no wonder James Gunn cast Pratt in the role of Peter Quill (Star Lord) in Guardians of the Galaxy.  He had to have seen this inner radiance Pratt emanates, this core glow that morphs a regular guy to super hero status on screen and off.

As a child who once spent three-hundred-dollars in bingo winnings on comic books, the transition to the man who now rests in the shoes of the rag-tag comic book hero, Star Lord, is not a huge leap.

“I loved the artistry.  I loved the, the characters the physicality of the heroes,” said Pratt. “I was always drawing comic book heroes…for me the stories weren’t what grabbed me, it was the covers and it was the cool art on the inside and the outside.”

Ghost Rider, Bart Man, Richie Rich, Spider Man, X-Men, Wolverine and Punisher comics are among those Pratt collected and revered in his youth.

“And I had a big stack of Conan I think it was the Samarian or something. They were really sexy,” said Pratt. “I remember, I was like a kid, they were like- they were kind of like the closest thing I had to smut.”

As someone who has struggled with fluctuation in weight and overall fitness, getting in shape to portray the super hero physicality he admired as a child proved challenging.  Pratt has a healthy sense of humor about his diet roller coaster and real-world struggles to reach a fitness pinnacle.  He used the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack during workouts and found that the beat from “O-O-H Child,” by The Five Stairsteps perfectly matched his running steps.

“For me when I’m running, I need to match my feet to the music,” said Pratt. “So I can forget how terrible it is that I’m running.”

The training for the fights scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy proved particularly intense for Pratt.

“We would learn a fight scene for a couple of weeks and then it would end up changing, and we’d learn it again,” said Pratt.  “I secretly think it was like a way for them to get me to lose even more weight.  They’re like ‘Hey, Chris, even more stunt rehearsal, can you believe it?  This stunt is you running on a treadmill.'”

Pratt’s hard word certainly paid off, audiences will quickly be enamored with his chiseled physique when Guardians of the Galaxy opens in theaters August 1.  From the physicality of the character to the humanity, Pratt truly owns the role of Star Lord.

Reality of the super hero and sci-fi magnitude of the film sunk in for Pratt during the first day of filming, which took place on the oceanic planet of Morag.

“I was wearing Quill’s long jacket for the first time,” said Pratt. “I’m running, there’s a wind blowing like probably sixty-seven miles an hour, rain machines, guys are shooting real water from real ponds hundreds of feet up in the air.  And we’re on an outdoor set that’s probably a hundred-and-fifty-yards long and a hundred-and-fifty yards wide.  There’s an element of green screen around the entire horizon, but on the inside it was like a sea had just drained out and revealed this city that had been underwater for ten-thousand years.  I was the moment where I thought, holy crap.  This is happening, I’m on this move and it’s going to be epic.”

Pratt takes his role as an iconic hero seriously, realizing he is now in a position to be a live action comic book hero to a new generation.

“To me, that is the greatest part of all this.  I remember pretending to be Han Solo in my backyard, or pretending to be Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker as a kid.  Comic books and storytelling of this magnitude is what really helped me cultivate my imagination as a young kid,” said Pratt.

“To think that kids are going to be out and they’re going to watch this and they’re going to feel that way. I’ve been Googling synonyms for ‘surreal’ just to try to help me explain what it feels like.”

Whatever Pratt will ultimately feel when Guardians of the Galaxy hits the big screen, there’s little doubt that a slew of young comic book fans who will have a deep-down desire to mimic his core radiance.

One certainty – Chris Pratt aka Star Lord makes it easy to believe in super heroes on screen and off.  No doubt, we’ll soon see a rash of Star Lord costumes on display in the coming Halloween parade of trick-or-treaters and piles of Peter Quill action figures under Christmas trees around the globe. As there, rightfully, should be.

Bloggers in attendance at the Chris Pratt interview (I’m second from the left side of Chris Pratt, in the back row.)

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