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Chris Pratt Used To Be Homeless Before He Got His Big Hollywood Break

Chris Pratt Used To Be Homeless Before He Got His Big Hollywood Break

Chris Pratt lived out of a van in Hawaii and worked as a coupon salesman

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Chris Pratt is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood these days, but did you know that he actually rose from pretty humble beginnings to reach the top of the movie game?

It's not actually that long ago that he was living in his van in Hawaii, technically homeless, while working in a shrimp restaurant.

Before that, he was driving the west coast of the United States selling coupons.

So, how did he get from there into Parks & Recreation, then on to the Jurassic World films and his Marvel Cinematic Universe breakout role in Guardians of the Galaxy?

Let's have a look, shall we?

PA

The 42-year-old was born in Minnesota in 1979, before moving to Washington State as a child.

After graduation from high school, he attended a community college in the area, but dropped out to join a multi-level marketing scheme as a coupon salesman.

Apparently, that stood him in good stead, as he once admitted to Conan O'Brien: "There are major lessons to be learned in door-to-door sales that you use as an actor, in terms of dealing with rejection and walking into a room of strangers and being on and being enthusiastic and stuff."

Eventually, he ended up in Hawaii, where he and a friend 'set up camp on the beach and lived the dream'.

OK, if the dream is living on a beach with no fixed abode.

Chris Pratt's first screen credit came about with 2000's Cursed Part 3.
Tropacanada

He earned money by working for at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, from which he also took some life lessons.

Pratt went on: "I don't know if you've ever had a dining experience at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., but they love a gregarious waiter who will get in your face and sing you birthday songs and do trivia."

It was at the restaurant that he managed to land his first notable acting role after serving Rae Dawn Chong. She offered him a role in Cursed Part 3, his first official acting credit.

From there, roles on TV series such as Everwood and The OC followed, before smaller parts in films like Moneyball, Wanted, and Jennifer's Body got his name around further.

On the set of 2011's Take Me Home Tonight, he met his eventual wife Anna Faris.

Chris Pratt had an early role in The OC in 2006.
Fox

While they're now divorced, they remain friends.

After wowing the show's creators with his first audition for Parks & Recreation, his initial six-episode arc was extended to a regular part.

Co-creator Michael Schur told Entertainment Weekly: "Almost at the point of the audition we were like, 'Oh, we have to reconceive this, because this guy's the funniest person we've ever seen. We're not letting that guy go."'

He also added: "Pratt is very often the best improviser in the cast, which is really saying something."

It is, given that established comedic talents like Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, and Aubrey Plaza were also on the show.

He continued that role until 2015, when the show was wrapped up, but by that time had broken through into Hollywood, where he is still one of the biggest stars to this day.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, Interesting, US Entertainment