Before he was Star-Lord, Chris Pratt was Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation, and before that, he was Bright on Everwood. But before all of that, he was a young kid growing up in Washington with a grocery store clerk mother and a gold miner father. Pratt, who wrestled and played football in high school (with his dad as his coach), decided to take the first step toward becoming a star when he enrolled at a local community college to study acting, but left after half a semester.
After some time going door-to-door selling coupons, Pratt moved to Hawaii, where he got a job at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and lived in a van on a beach. His big break came when Commando's Rae Dawn Chong walked into his restaurant, and he told her that he always wanted to be in movies. "She said, 'You're cute. Do you act?'" he said. "I was like, f— it, 'Goddamn right I act! Put me in a movie!'"
Chong decided to do just that, and put Pratt in her directorial debut Cursed Part III. The movie was filming in L.A., and Pratt was nervous at first because he couldn't afford the flight; luckily, producers flew him out. After appearing in the film, the future star decided to give acting a real shot and moved out to L.A. for good. He was cast in Everwood a few years later and his rise to the top began.
