Chris Pratt Kicked Off His Career By Making The 'Worst Movie' He'd Ever Seen

The career arc of actor Chris Pratt has been an unusual roller coaster. In his early 20s, Pratt landed a regular role on the maudlin WB drama series "Everwood," wherein he played the character Bright, a sullen young man who accidentally injured his best friend in a car crash. Throughout the 2000s, Pratt appeared in "goofball" supporting roles in high-profile studio films like "Bride Wars" and the cult hit "Jennifer's Body." Starting in 2009, Pratt played the none-too-bright doofus Andy on the hit series "Parks and Recreation," a show so popular, it propelled the entire cast to greater stardom. 

Although an expert in playing unaware and somewhat doltish characters, Pratt slowly began mutating — against all odds — into a typically handsome Hollywood leading man. When Pratt was cast in the role of Star-Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie "Guardians of the Galaxy," his transformation was complete. He was now a flip, sexy action hero, complete with shameless beefcake shots. That same year, he was in the unexpected hit "The Lego Movie," proving he was a kiddie matinee idol as well. 

Pratt soon began popping up in all sorts of blockbuster action flicks. In addition to a handful of additional Marvel films, he also turned up as a stalwart velociraptor trainer in "Jurassic World," and played the voice of a lead character in the Pixar film "Onward." He will soon be heard voicing both the lasagna-loving comic strip cat Garfield and the video game icon Mario, albeit in different films. Pratt has, unusually, become one of the world's preeminent go-to movie stars of the modern age. 

But all actors hav to start somewhere. Pratt's first film was a 2000 horror satire called "Cursed Part 3," a film is completely unrelated to Wes Craven's "Cursed" from 2004. There is no "Cursed" or "Cursed 2" associated with Pratt's debut.

In a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, Chris Pratt told the story of how he landed his first gig. Pratt was an athlete in high school and dropped out of community college to take odd jobs, even occasionally working as a stripper. As described in a biography in EW, he eventually landed in Hawai'i, sleeping in his van and working as a waiter. It was during this part of his life that Pratt had a chance encounter with Rae Dawn Chong. As Pratt tells it to Vanity Fair, his conversation with Chong was brief, to the point, and very exciting. As Pratt re-enacts the encounter, he said "I'm your server." Chong said "I'm Rae Dawn Chong." He replied, "You're a movie star." She commented "You're cute. Do you act?" and he says, "F***, yeah, I act. Put me in a movie." 

One might guess Pratt's conversation was not related verbatim. Regardless, Pratt gave Chong the telephone number of his best friend Michael, as he did not have a phone in his van. Chong did end up calling — Michael nearly forgot to relay the message — and Pratt was asked to come to Los Angeles to audition for an unknown project of Chong's. At first, Pratt turned down the opportunity, thinking he needed to buy his own plane ticket to L.A., something he could not afford at the time. Luckily, Chong could afford it, and off he went. 

The reading went well, and Pratt landed the lead. The film he auditioned for was "Cursed Part 3," a satirical horror short that Chong wrote and was directing. In a metanarrative twist, "Cursed Part 3" is about a young aspiring horror filmmaker (Donna Mills) who seeks to make her own "Blair Witch" style mockumentary.

Rae Dawn Chong seemed to be taking the air out of her own tires with "Cursed Part 3," as it remains, to this day, her only effort as a writer and director. This was 2000, so the world was currently enamored of the 1999 mega-hit "The Blair Witch Project." It's likely Chong looked upon the film's success with cynicism, and felt the phenomenon should be gently mocked. Her handsome leading man was Pratt, and he played Devon, a "funny" cussing blonde movie star who offered the occasional crass comment. They filmed for a mere 10 days, then, evidently, Chong stuck the completed film in a drawer. It never saw a home video release. Thanks to Eastern Video Productions, however, the 25-minute film has been made available online. 

This may be to Pratt's dismay. In the Vanity Fair interview, Pratt was asked directly about "Cursed Part 3," with interviewer Rich Cohen imploring him to describe the film. Pratt was blunt: "It was the worst movie I'd ever seen."

"Cursed Part 3," however, didn't seem to have any impact on Pratt's upward swing, nor on anyone else for that matter. Chong continued to act. Lead actress Mills has appeared in numerous Hallmark Christmas movies, and played a small part in Jordan Peele's new film "Nope." Annie Little, who played Xuxa in "Cursed Part 3" has appeared in many, many hit TV shows in supporting roles. Everyone seems to be doing okay, but Pratt is the outlier in that he's the only member of the cast to go on to nab the prestigious roles of voicing both Garfield and Mario.