Chris Pratt Shares His Discovery Story and First Acting Class Experience

During an interview with SiriusXM host Jess Cagle, Chris Pratt discussed being discovered in Hawaii by director Rae Dawn Chong at just 19.

“I said, ‘I can’t afford to go to Los Angeles,’ and she said, ‘Sweetie, we’ll fly you there,'” he said, laughing. “And I really felt in that moment, I knew my life had changed forever.”

The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star said he learned the craft of acting on the job and called out Hollywood for taking advantage of people looking for a break.

Pratt remembered taking a two-day casting director’s workshop for $260 on how to “get an audition” and learning that it’s just practice that makes perfect.

“I was looking around, and all I could do was just count how many people were in the room and how much money this dude was making for this class. It was like a crock of s—t,” he said. “There’s a hunger that people have to become an actor and an entire industry that feeds on that hunger.”

Pratt also talked about Jennifer Lawrence, his co-star in the new sci-fi/rom-com “Passengers.” Though they’re buddies now, the two had never met before hitting the set.

“I think it very much mirrors our relationship in the movie in that regard, just like, ‘By the way, here’s a stranger, and you guys are gonna be stuck together for a while,'” he said. “I got pretty lucky that she’s awesome. If she was a nightmare, that would have been really difficult. That would have sucked. But luckily, she’s about as cool as you imagine and more.”