Chris Pratt Shares Pic of Van He 'Lived In' Before Stardom
Before he became a guardian of the galaxy, Chris Pratt was once homeless living in a van in Maui.
The 35-year-old actor of "Guardians of the Galaxy" shared a picture on Facebook of his posing next to a white van with Scooby-Doo and Shaggy painted on the side.
"Can't believe I found this picture!!!" he wrote on Facebook Friday. "This is the van I lived in!!!"
He added, "In my hand is the script for the movie that got me out of Maui. Crazy."
Pratt moved to Maui at age 19, having dropped out of college after one semester and taking up a friend's offer of a one-way to ticket to Hawaii.
"It's a pretty awesome place to be homeless," he told the UK's " Independent last month about his days sleeping in the van or in a tent on the beach. "It would be different if I lived on the streets of Chicago and ate garbage from a dumpster."
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It was while working at Maui's Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in 2000 that Pratt waited on the table of actress Rae Dawn Chong, who starred in "Commando," one of his favorite films. Pratt charmed Chong, who offered him a role in a short film she was directing, "Cursed Part 3."
So began Pratt's long road to stardom, from roles in "Everwood" and "The O.C." to his regular stint on "Parks and Recreation" to film roles in "Moneyball" and "Zero Dark Thirty" to his current star turn in "Guardians," which took in $94 million its opening weekend.
It's a long way from Maui, when, as he told the Independent, he "just drank and smoked weed and worked minimal hours, 15-20 hours per week, just enough to cover gas, food and fishing supplies. You know, it was charming time."