Additional Coverage:
- Chris Pratt admits the ‘Moneyball’ director told him to stop being “such an a–hole” on set (foxnews.com)
Chris Pratt Reveals the “Worst and Best” Direction He Ever Received on Set, Plus a Close Call With a New Stage Name
Hollywood star Chris Pratt recently pulled back the curtain on a particularly memorable-and frankly, a bit rude-note he once received from a director. During a candid chat on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast on January 22nd, the 46-year-old actor dished on the surprising feedback he got while filming the critically acclaimed movie “Moneyball.”
Pratt, known for his roles in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Parks and Recreation,” recounted a scene where his character, Scott Hatteberg, was struggling to catch the ball as a first baseman. He’d been training for weeks and felt he was pretty good, so he was really putting his all into the take. That’s when director Bennett Miller approached him and, according to Pratt, said, “Just stop being such an a–hole.”
“It made me so mad,” Pratt admitted, though he quickly realized it was exactly what he needed. That raw anger, he explained, was precisely what Miller was trying to elicit for the scene, which ultimately made it into the final cut of the movie.
“That anger was what he wanted to see in me,” Pratt clarified. “He just knew how to push my buttons to make the character do something that I don’t do authentically very well, which was anger.
And so that was one of the best directions I ever got, but also one of the worst directions I ever got.”
Pratt played Scott Hatteberg, a real-life former professional baseball player whose career took an unexpected turn after an elbow injury forced him to switch from catcher to first baseman.
Beyond the director’s unique coaching style, Pratt also shared a fun tidbit about his early days before hitting it big. Back when he was a 19-year-old server at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Maui, he was discovered by actress and director Rae Dawn Chong.
It turns out, during his time slinging shrimp, a nickname almost stuck as his stage name. His nametag, originally reading “Christopher,” had the “PHER” rubbed off, leaving “Christo.”
New employees, with the restaurant’s high turnover, genuinely thought his name was Christo. For a while, he even considered going by “just Christo” as he pursued his acting dreams.
While he ultimately decided on Chris, he revealed in a 2022 interview that “no one calls me Chris” and even told his pastor it “feels weird.”
Off-screen, Pratt is married to Katherine Schwarzenegger, and the couple shares three children: Lyla, 5, Eloise, 3, and Ford, 1. He also has a son, Jack, 13, from his previous marriage to Anna Faris.
And speaking of family, Pratt recently went viral for detailing a rather unique Christmas gift from his father-in-law, none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. On “The Graham Norton Show,” Pratt shared that Arnold’s “love language is giving gifts.”
This past Christmas, the “Terminator” star commissioned a massive 6-foot by 8-foot portrait painting of himself as Santa Claus, surrounded by Pratt’s three children peering around a Christmas tree, watching Santa enjoy a cookie. Sounds like quite the festive centerpiece!