Vince Vaughn may be the Delivery Man, but Chris Pratt especially delivers in the comedy, adding a wry approach to his downtrodden attorney and put-upon dad who tries to give legal assistance and moral support when his pal (Vaughn) discovers that, as a sperm donor, he fathered 533 offspring.
The Parks & Recreation star and future Guardians of the Galaxy hero reveals his mental and very physical approach to comedy.
Fandango: Usually it's Vince Vaughn who gets this kind of scene-stealing material in his movies, but you got to swipe scenes from him.
Pratt: Oh really? Oh, man – yeah, there are some great moments for Brett in this movie, absolutely, and it was really similar to the original film, Starbuck. I think it's awesome that Ken [Scott, the director of both films] was able to get his story to a broader American audience, and I think it really works. Brett has some good moments, for sure.
Fandango: You deliver lines in a way that it's hard to tell if you're improvising or if it's scripted. Did you get to go off script much?
Pratt: Zero. No improv at all. Never went off script even once, intentionally.
Fandango: It feels so in the moment the way you do it.
Pratt: Oh, that's great. That was a big goal of mine because it is in my comfort zone to ad-lib and say what the character is saying, but in my own words to make it more natural. This was a big test for me. It was really important to me to say the words exactly as they were written. I thought it really worked in the original movie and in the script, and I wanted to service the story.
Fandango: Is comedy the place you like best or feel the most comfortable?
Pratt: It's interesting: It depends on from which vantage point from which I'm speaking. Because on the day when we're doing it, comedy is more fun. You have people laughing. You have instant gratification. You know if it worked or not. But when I go and I sit in a theater and I hear an audience reacting to it, it doesn't feel as good as if I do something dramatic.
When you're doing something dramatic, the result of doing really fine dramatic work that moves people and doing really terrible dramatic work that's muggy and embarrasses you is the same, which is silence. You don't know in the moment if it's working, and that makes it a really painful process. But then in a theater if you do something moving and you can tell, that's the best feeling you can get. If you can feel the audience being moved, then truly you feel like you've accomplished something major. Especially for me because I've been making people laugh my whole life. I've been a goofball and a cut-up. I was class clown and I was always goofing around making my parents laugh.
Fandango: You've put yourself through the physical ringer recently. You did SEAL training for Zero Dark Thirty, then you let yourself be: you looked a little bigger in this movie as a harried dad with kids climbing all over you.
Pratt: Oh, I was 300 pounds in this movie!
Fandango: Then you went back to ripped for Guardians of the Galaxy and now I assume you get to eat what you want, at least for a little while. How is your body handing that?
Pratt: I felt it this time. I felt it! And I don't think I want to continue doing it. I might've taken a couple years off my life over the past few years, by ballooning up and slimming back down. It's not good for you. But look, I'm not digging ditches. I'm not a construction worker or roofer or underwater welder or sitting at a desk where I'm in front of a screen that's destroying my eyes and hurting my back from bad posture. Working should, if you're doing it right, take a little bit out of you, and I'm lucky that I'm doing something I'm passionate about, so if it takes a little bit out of me that's fine.
