James Gunn Once Shared Why Chris Pratt’s Size Was a Problem for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn famously cast Chris Pratt as Star-Lord in the Marvel feature . But Gunn confided that Pratt’s size at the time presented a problem when he had to cast the rest of the movie.
James Gunn wanted actors who could make Chris Pratt look smaller
Pratt managed to snag his Guardians of the Galaxy role after a lengthy audition process that saw him competing with several actors. But initially, Pratt doubted he’d get the part. He tested for Marvel movies before like Thor, and the constant rejection left him a bit jaded. However, Pratt recognized that Marvel was having more than a tough time finding their Star-Lord.
“I was circling around it for a long time, and they kept testing people and testing people, and no one was right for it,” Pratt once told MTV News.
But things changed after Pratt spoke to the film’s director Gunn.
“I went in and met the director, James Gunn, and something happened in that room,” Pratt said. “He gave me a sense of what he wanted. I, of course, wasn’t able to read a script until essentially after signing up to do the movie. I could tell from what he wanted that it was something close to what I could give. It started just becoming real. Then it did. I had a screen test for it. Even during the screen test, I was like, ‘Oh, I got this. This is mine. This is mine now.’ I knew going in.”
Pratt also lost a significant amount of weight for the role. But his chiseled physique made casting the rest of the Guardians even harder. Even tall actors like Jason Momoa, who was considered for Drax, couldn’t make Pratt seem shorter than he was.
“One of the problems with casting the rest of these roles is that Chris Pratt was the first person we cast, and Chris Pratt is enormous, you know? An actor like Jason Momoa would come, and he’s smaller than Chris, basically,” Gunn once told Superhero Hype. “So it’s like we had to have some people around Chris who would make him look somewhat small. Actors like Dave Bautista and Lee Pace are hard to come by, anybody that’s bigger than Chris.”
One of the reasons why Gunn cast actor Lee Pace as Ronin was because of the actor’s stature as well.
“Lee was the guy who I just instantly hit it off with, so when we started casting Ronan, which we needed to cast really quickly, I called him up and I said, ‘Dude, will you put yourself on tape real quick and send it to me because I think that you’re a physically imposing guy.’ That was the other thing. Lee is 6’5,” Gunn said.
Jason Momoa felt Chris Pratt acted circles around him during their ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ audition
Momoa asserted that he eventually turned down the role of Drax. In an old interview Momoa did with Zap2It (via Flickering Myth), the actor shared that Drax was too similar to other roles he played.
“Dave is perfect for that role, for Drax,” Momoa said. “It didn’t really fit in my time because I’ve done so many things where I don’t say much and I’m colored up and I have my shirt off again. I made a conscious choice to turn down some movies that were action-based to direct Road to Paloma so people could see that side. I want my children to see their father happy. It’s not that it’s not a good role, it just wasn’t the right thing. I was on Stargate: Atlantis for four years playing a similar character called Ronon, who was an alien who didn’t say much and grunted. I’ve been there and done that, whether people have seen it or not. You want to stretch.”
But Momoa did give a little insight into what it was like auditioning alongside Pratt for the film.
“One of the funnest auditions I’ve ever done in my life was with [Chris]. He’s phenomenal. He’s going to kill it. It’s going to be amazing. It’s a whole Han Solo vibe. It’s going to be a phenomenal movie. I’m glad that he is the lead of that. He’s funny as hell, man. He can improv; he just acts circles around me. It was really, really fantastic,” Momoa said.
