Every once in a while there's a popular poll that keeps resurfacing on Twitter- Who is the best Chris of Hollywood, and who is the worst Chris of Hollywood. The voters get to choose between Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, and Chris Pratt, while the result for best Chris keeps changing regularly, Chris Pratt consistently kept winning the poll for worst Chris of Hollywood by a huge margin. So how did Pratt, who was once a fan-favorite star as Andy Dwyer, the lovable goof on 'Parks & Recreation', become one of the most hated celebrities in Hollywood?
From his award-ceremony speeches to an innocent Instagram post expressing love for his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, everything that the 'Guardians of Galaxy' star does, instantly earns him a massive backlash and criticism on the internet. Is the hatred against him justified or is Pratt yet another innocent victim of the vicious cancel culture on the internet? Keep reading to know why we believe that Pratt may fall into the latter category.
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Internet 'loves to hate' Chris Pratt
Although Chris Pratt made his big debut in Hollywood in 2000 after landing a role in 'Cursed' Part 3, he didn't taste success until he landed a small role on NBC's 'Parks & Recreation' as Andy Dwyer. Pratt's role was supposed to be just a guest role, but the producers loved him so much that they made Andy a permanent character on the show, and thus Pratt became a series regular. Fans loved watching the naive yet lovable Andy and his very relatable struggles on the NBC show. It wasn't just his character Andy that was receiving love, but Pratt too was enjoying the adoration from fans.
Fans couldn't get enough of the lovable oddball. Aside from his professional life, his personal life too began gaining attention, and soon Pratt and his then-wife Anna Faris became a power couple of sorts. In order to gain better roles and projects, Andy worked hard on losing weight and getting into shape. This move landed him a role in 2011's hit movie 'Moneyball'. Since then, Pratt signed on to several big-name projects such as 'The Lego Movie', 'Guardians of Glalaxy', 'Jurassic Park', etc. As his fame continued growing, the public scrutiny against him kept growing as well.
While Pratt's professional life was blooming, apparently his personal life was falling apart. When Pratt and his wife Faris announced their divorce in 2017, Pratt went from being the golden boy to the most hated man in Hollywood overnight.
Divorce from Anna Faris and marriage to Katherine Schwarzenegger
Pratt met his first wife Anna Faris in 2007, while filming for 'Take Me Home Tonight'. The on-screen couple fell in love in real life, got engaged in 2008, and tied the knot in 2009. In 2012, Faris gave birth to their son, Jack, who was born prematurely. Things seemed to be going well with the couple until rumors of Pratt's infidelity began doing rounds. Faris revealed on her podcast, 'Unqualified', "It made me feel incredibly insecure. Chris and I, we talk about this a lot. We grapple with a lot of the ideas of being a public couple."
The couple announced their split in 2017, claiming that they "tried hard for a long time" and were very disappointed about their split. Shortly after their divorce, Pratt began dating Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter Katherine Schwarzenegger. In January 2019, Pratt announced that he and Katherine were engaged. The couple tied the knot later that year, and welcomed their first daughter in 2020. The couple recently had their second daughter in May 2022.
Pratt received a lot of clapback back in November 2021, when he made an Instagram post to appreciate his wife Katherine, and thank her for giving him a "gorgeous healthy daughter". While some people called out Pratt for his patronizing way of speaking about his wife, and women, in general, others felt that it was a dig at his ex- wife Faris and his prematurely born son Jack. In a recent interview with Men's Health, Pratt opened up about the criticism he faced and revealed that he cried over it. He said, "I said something like, ‘Find someone who looks at you the way my wife looks at me.’ And then I gave her some sh*t in the thing and said, ‘But I love you. I’m so thankful for my wife—she gave me a beautiful, healthy daughter.’ And then a bunch of articles came out and said, ‘That’s so cringeworthy. I can’t believe Chris Pratt would thank her for a healthy daughter when his first child was born premature. That’s such a dig at his ex-wife.’ And I’m like, That is f*cked up. My son’s gonna read that one day. He’s nine. And it’s etched in digital stone. It really f*cking bothered me, dude. I cried about it. I was like, I hate that these blessings in my life are—to the people close to me—a real burden.”
Religious and political beliefs
It wasn't just Pratt's marriage to Katherine that raised eyebrows, critics also took offense at Pratt's alleged religious and political views. It all began when back in 2018 at the MTV Movie & TV Awards as the recipient of a Generation Award, Pratt took to the stage and gave a passionate speech. He said, "God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you." He concluded his speech by saying "Don’t be a turd.” But people latched onto the God part and made Pratt the face of a God-fearing and religious person.
Pratt was also accused of being anti-LGBTQ, owing to his association with the infanmous Hillsong Megachurch. He was called out by 'Juno' star Elliot Page for being a member of the famous church that has strong anti-LGBTQ stance. Page tweeted, "If you are a famous actor and you belong to an organization that hates a certain group of people, don’t be surprised if someone simply wonders why it’s not addressed. Being anti LGBTQ is wrong, there aren’t two sides.”
Pratt took to his Instagram to snuff out the accusations by claiming he went to a Church that had open doors for everyone. "It has recently been suggested that i belong to a church which ‘hates people’ and is ‘infamously anti-LGBTQ.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. I go to a church that opens their doors to absolutely everyone.” In the interview with Men's Health magazine he went on to clarify that he wasn't even a religious person in the first place.
“Religion has been oppressive as f*** for a long time. I didn’t know that I would kind of become the face of religion when really I’m not a religious person. I think there’s a distinction between being religious—adhering to the customs created by man, oftentimes appropriating the awe reserved for who I believe is a very real God—and using it to control people, to take money from people, to abuse children, to steal land, to justify hatred. Whatever it is. The evil that’s in the heart of every single man has glommed on to the back of religion and come along for the ride," he explained.
Pratt further trigerred the public when he was spotted sporting some questionable and very political clothing choices. He was photographed wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "Don’t Tread on Me". Though Pratt never clarified his intentions behind wearing the t-shirt with the slogan that's favored by white supremacists, it didn't help his cause much when allegations of him being a Trump supporter began circulating owing to him following several conservative Republican followers on Twitter.
So, what exactly are Pratt's political views, you ask? Well, Pratt has never been vocal about his political opinions. In a 2017 article, People had reported that the actor had said, “I really feel there’s common ground out there that’s missed because we focus on the things that separate us. You’re either the red state or the blue state, the left or the right. Not everything is politics. And maybe that’s something I’d want to help bridge, because I don’t feel represented by either side.”
Hollywood Comes to Chris Pratt's rescue
Despite the immense public hate towards him, Pratt continues to be a box-office success and one of the most-sought after stars in the tinsel town. 'Guardians of the Galaxy' director James Gunn came to his rescue and slammed the public for miplaced hatred towards him. In an interview with Men's Health, Gunn stated, "It absolutely infuriates me. Chris is unspeakably kind to people; he goes out of his way to help kids. He’s an especially loving father. And there’s a lot of stuff that people have literally just made up about him—about his politics, about who he is, about what he believes of other people, you know?”
Controversial podcast host Joe Rogan too backed Pratt and felt that the Hollywood star was being targeted for his religious views and beliefs. On his popular podcast, Rogan expressed, "He's (Pratt) kind of outside of the lines in terms of his ideology, he's a Christian, and pretty open about it, and because of that, they attack him. It's something so simple, he just believes in Jesus and he likes to be a good person, and they're like 'f*** him!'" "It's a bully pile-on, that's what it is. You see someone being vulnerable, and then you can snipe at them, and you don't have any repercussions and they're not in front of you, so you attack the guy. He's done nothing... He's the nicest f***ing guy I've ever met in my life. I've been in hunting camp with him. He's nice to everybody... My point is, I've seen him interact with people, he sits at these cafeteria-style tables with everybody, from all walks of life, he's super normal," Rogan added.
Unlike the superhero roles he reprises in the movies, Pratt is but only a human, which means he too has his own fair share of mistakes and learnings. But that doesn't mean he should be subjected to a lot of incessant hate for every action of his. Hopefully, the cancel culture will recognize this and be kinder towards Pratt.
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