It’s still hard to believe that Parks and Recreation” to the still lovable (but way more more buff) Peter Quill in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Now that he’s a bonafide Marvel superhero, Pratt feels the pressure for Marvel’s summer flick, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” — but, if he’s learned anything from filming his first sequel, it’s that having Kurt Russell in it is awesome.
While on the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” last year, Pratt told Moviefone and a small group of reporters all about his plans to be adopted by Russell, how much he’s digging the new mix tape, and where Star-Lord’s relationship with Gamora stands.
How cool is it that Kurt Russell is playing your dad?
Chris Pratt: It’s so cool. It’s perfect. There are actors that I loved growing up, and he is absolutely right at the top of that list and has not done anything to disappoint the inner-child in me that was so excited when he got cast. Even though he’s the “everyman” kind of character, he’s really an artist, and he just really cares deeply about all the details of his character. We’re really kindred spirits, I think. He loves to hunt and be outdoors and I just love him. I’m in love with Kurt Russell. I’ve asked him to be my dad in a real way. I’m still hoping to hear on that, because he’s got other children, so I think he’s got to check with them to see if they want a brother. But, I’m hoping they’ll say yes.
What was it like for Peter to meet his dad for the first time?
Well, I think all of the evidence that Quill has to who his father is, he learns at the same time as the audience does in the first movie. He realizes there’s something special about him that he can’t quite identify, but that’s as much as he knows. He learns with the audience through the course of this second movie who he is, so I’m not sure necessarily that he had expectations that aren’t comically Quill. You get to find out who he hopes his father is, and you get to find out whether or not that is the reality.
How is Star-Lord different in this film vs. the first one?
We’re picking up a couple of months after the first “Guardians” movie, so there was a certain evolution that happened with him in that movie, and it was important to all of us that we don’t move backwards and all of a sudden start where he was at the beginning of the first movie and just tell that story over again. So, he definitely feels a responsibility, and feels like he’s a leader, but it’s still a group of misfits. He certainly doesn’t have mastery on how to be the leader of this group, but I think he feels like the leader at the beginning of this.
Has messing with the Power Stone done anything to Peter?
Well, it plays a certain role. His interaction with the Infinity Stone in the first movie. There’s a thread there that gets pulled into this second movie. You get to know a little bit more. That wasn’t an unimportant aspect of who he is.
What do you think about the “Vol. 2” mixtape?
It’s totally different, but also the same. It’s a collection of really great songs. James [Gunn] is a fantastic curator for that kind of music and it’s probably better because we had more money. As a narrative tool, there’s never a moment that the music isn’t justified and isn’t part of the storytelling process. It’s not just an accompaniment or a score. The songs, more so in this movie, really help tell the story.
The audience response to first movie was completely unexpected. Did you guys feel a certain pressure going into the sequel?
It’s a different type of pressure that we’re under now. Before, the pressure was, “No one knows you, and what’s it going to be like to be the first Marvel movie that fails?” I can’t tell you how many times I answered that question and I was like “This is not looking good.” So that pressure is off, because we built an audience and people really liked it. The pressure we’re feeling now is: “How do we do the same thing, in terms of wowing an audience and having people come in and have their expectations defied.” A lot of times when people make a sequel, they just play the hits. They’re like “Let’s just tell the exact same story, strip it down, replace the jokes with new jokes and replace the bad guy with a new bad guy, tell the same exact story in a different way.” That totally works fine, but that’s not what we’re doing at all with this movie.
Will Peter and Gamora have a will they / won’t they relationship?
That was there in the first movie as well. I think anytime you take a man and a woman in a movie that are both in a lead position and you put them in the same room, there’s naturally going to be this question of “will they or won’t they?” That’s pretty inevitable, unless you really clearly illustrate that either they’re brother and sister or that one of them isn’t into that type of thing. If you have two characters of the opposite sex, it always seems like you’re just waiting for them to collide. So that is dealt with a little more in this movie, but then again we didn’t want to go back and do the same thing we did in the first movie. So it steps up a little bit.
What is the relationship like between Star-Lord and Mantis?
I can tell you that Pom [Klementieff] is somebody who will be on your radar for the rest of your life after this. She is crushing it, and she’s so unique and, like Dave [Bautista] was born to play Drax, she was born to play Mantis. Her particular voice, the look of the character, and all the story elements are so unique that it’s really nice that Pom inhabits a character no one’s ever seen before, because she’s doing something no one has ever seen before. As far as how our relationship goes, I don’t want to get too far into that, but she’s a major part of this movie and, I think it’s safe to say, a major member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
What’s it like to have kids come up to you and see you as Star-Lord?
People didn’t know who Star-Lord was, unless they were a comic book fan and read “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but, kids didn’t know who Star-Lord was. So it took this movie for it to become a household name kind of superhero character and for that I feel really proud and really happy. I just feel really lucky to be part of the process of bringing that to kids. It just tickles me.
Which Marvel character would you want Star-Lord to be paired up with?
I think it would be awesome for Star-Lord to meet Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Kingpin somehow.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” blasts into theaters May 5th.
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