Chris Pratt failed several Marvel auditions before landing ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’

Marvel fans know Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, the eccentric leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. However, in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Pratt admitted that he had a string of bad luck leading up to the role.

In fact, Pratt failed several Marvel auditions, including roles for one of The Warriors Three, Thor’s Asgardian group of friends.

“I auditioned for them all,” Pratt said. “I had a rough run with Marvel. I auditioned for ‘Thor’, but not even to be Thor – but to be one of the sidekick guys, and I didn’t get a callback.

“Usually they give you a little bit of feedback, and I remember the casting director goes, ‘Wow. You really made a big choice there.’ Which is code for being like: ‘Hey dial back the acting there, guy.’”

Pratt didn’t think he’d ever work for Marvel

Pratt went through so many failed auditions that he didn’t think he’d ever work for Marvel.

“[I]t got to the point where I was never gonna audition for Marvel again,” he continued. “I was like, ‘This is stupid, I’m never gonna be in a Marvel movie.’”

When asked which Marvel movies he auditioned for, Pratt replied with, “All of them.”

“Anything that came out that needed a guy that even remotely looked like me, I auditioned for in some way or another. And I would either submit a tape and they would say ‘No, we don’t need to see him,’ or I would get there and see them, they’d go, ‘No, that’s the last time we need to see you.’”

Pratt went on to express how disheartening it is to fail an audition.

“And it was not only Marvel things but there have been a lot of heroic characters in various films,” he added. “Not DC characters, but like, you know, ‘Star Trek’ or ‘Avatar’.

“Anything that was like, ‘This guy walks in and he’s got the ‘it’ factor.’ Over and over again I was like, ‘Well, I definitely don’t have that ‘it’ factor they’re looking for because they don’t even want me to come back.”

Pratt’s luck eventually changed

Eventually, Pratt got the opportunity to audition for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.

While he initially fumbled the bag, things took a positive turn when James Gunn had Pratt do improv with Dave Bautista. Their chemistry is what secured Pratt the Marvel role.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3′ releases in theaters May 5.