Chris Pratt was “discovered” while waiting tables at a restaurant in Maui, where he lived out of a van on the beach.
Thanks to a childhood friend from Lake Stevens, we’re getting a look at that beach – and Pratt’s campsite – for the first time.
Alex Petrakopoulos shared home video he shot on October 3rd, 1999. He and Pratt were just out of high school and had moved to Hawaii for an adventure.
We showed the footage to Pratt during a press event for Avengers Infinity War, and his reaction was priceless.
“That's my van! This is us, this is the beach - oh my God! This is the beach I lived on in Hawaii,” he said. “I'm clearly hung over, living on the beach in a van, picking sand out of my mouth, I probably just woke up.”
The video pans the beach, where fishing poles are jutting out of the sand.
“That's how we could justify camping there,” Pratt said. “You know what those fishing poles had at the end of them? Nothing. A little chunk of lead that we swam out so that if they showed up, (we could say) 'We're fishing! We don't live here.’”
In the video, he tells Petrakopoulos he needs to study for his new job – waiting tables at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
About three months later, Pratt was doing just that when he met filmmaker Rae Dawn Chong, who saw something in him - and cast him in his first movie.
"That is my origin story. That's amazing,” Pratt said. “Al, Big Al, what's up dude! That is bad ass.”
Pratt and Petrakopoulos are still friends, and his family's restaurant - Omega Pizza and Pasta in Granite Falls - is home to a mural Pratt painted as a teen.
Avengers Infinity War is rated PG-13 and opens April 27.
Travel and accommodation provided by Marvel Studios.
