Chris Pratt Says He Was ‘Living in a Van’ With ‘About $60’ Before Big Hollywood Break

“Guardians of the Galaxy” actor Chris Pratt may be enjoying a lavish life as a movie star these days—but before he achieved major success in Hollywood, he was a restaurant server living humbly in Hawaii.

In an Oct. 29 post shared on X, the “Jurassic World” actor, 47, opened up about the unlikely encounter that turned it all around.

“Before Hollywood, I was living in a van in Hawaii and waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. One day, the incredible Rae Dawn Chong walked into the restaurant, and naturally, I went up to her table and said, ‘Hey, you’re a movie star! What are you doing here?’” he wrote.

When Chong, who starred in “The Color Purple,” asked Pratt if he could act, he recalled replying, “F-ck yeah, put me in your movie!”

From there, Chong asked for Pratt’s phone number.

“The only problem was I didn’t have one,” he said. “So I gave her my buddy Mike’s number instead.”

Pratt explained that “a couple days later,” his friend “casually” mentioned that someone had called looking for him. Pratt returned Chong’s call and discovered that her offer was legitimate.

“I drove over to pick up the script, went back to Mike’s house, and read all 120 pages three times in a row,” Pratt wrote, sharing that it was the first script he’d ever read. “My character’s name was Devon, and I remember thinking, ‘Sweet! I could totally play a Devon!’”

The father of four prepared extensively for the audition, which worked well in his favor.

“Rae told me I could act and offered me the part. I asked if we were shooting in Hawaii. Nope. Los Angeles,” he wrote.

With just “about $60” to his name, “a bag of clothes, and some rollerblades,” Pratt sensed his situation would be changing soon.

“Then Rae told me they’d fly me out. And I remember thinking right then and there, my life just changed forever,” he wrote. “I’m going to be an actor.”

Pratt remarked he will “forever be grateful to Rae for taking a chance on a kid working at a shrimp restaurant,” adding that the “little movie” that gave him his start was the 2000 film “Cursed: Part III”—a project he described as “a low-budget horror comedy. That opened the door to Hollywood for me.”

The actor’s living arrangements have been given quite the upgrade in the years since he was staying in a van.

Pratt and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, 36, are reportedly residing in a Montecito property that was previously home to pop star Katy Perry as they try to offload their sprawling Pacific Palisades mansion.

The couple has been trying to sell for years, after purchasing the property in June 2018 for $15.6 million and razing the existing home to build the custom 13,000-square-foot megamansion that currently stands.

The price has been slashed a few times since they initially listed it for $32 million in July 2023, and it currently sits at $19.99 million—the lowest price it has been, in its fifth time on the market in three years.

The listing, which is held by Shana Tavangarian of Carolwood Estates, describes the six-bedroom, 7.5-bathroom abode as a “one of a kind architectural masterpiece” that was created “with no expense spared.”

Boasting “luxury quality construction” and “grand scale and volume throughout,” the estate is located on just under an acre within a “boutique gated community”

While it was initially understood that the property had been intended to serve as the couple's permanent family home, they ended up purchasing another mansion for $12.5 million in 2023, this time opting for a parcel that is just a stone's throw from the Brentwood house of Schwarzenegger's mother, Maria Shriver.

Again, they demolished the dwelling that stood on that parcel in order to begin construction on another custom manse, which they broke ground on in 2024.

Their most recent construction project has already sparked furious controversy, however, after it was revealed that Pratt and Schwarzenegger had demolished a midcentury modern property designed by acclaimed architect Craig Ellwood in order to make way for their new custom dwelling.

Design fans were upset by the couple's decision to tear down the original structure, known as the Zimmerman House, which dated to the 1950s and was considered a design gem.

Work on that property is still understood to be ongoing—and it appears that, while they wait for their latest home to be completed, Pratt and Schwarzenegger are continuing to reside in the Montecito property once owned by Perry and her former fiancé, Orlando Bloom.