Hollywood star Chris Pratt is having an incredible few months. Pratt’s new show The Terminal List is the top streamed television series on Amazon Prime, the latest Jurassic World movie just surpassed $900 million at the box office and filming recently wrapped on the third and final installment of Guardians of the Galaxy. His wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, just welcomed the couple’s second baby, and next year, Pratt will provide the voice for popular animated characters Mario and Garfield in their respective movies.
Pratt’s rise is especially remarkable because less than two years ago the online mob officially deigned him “The Worst Chris” after a series of media attacks about his alleged political and religious views. This type of organized hatred is usually enough to cancel someone from the limelight, or at least seriously curb their influence. But Pratt has somehow emerged from years of smears stronger than ever.
The resentment toward Pratt by left-wing youngsters steeped in entertainment culture can be traced back to an acceptance speech he gave back in 2018. Pratt, receiving the Generation Award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, offered his nine rules for living. The rules alternated between funny (“Don’t be a turd”) and sincere (“Nobody is perfect”) but what really caught fire was Pratt’s proclamation that he believes in God.
“God is real. God loves you, God wants the best for you. Believe that, I do,” Pratt asserted.
That’s a relatively benign thing to say in most of the country, but in Hollywood it puts a target on your back. Pratt largely built his career on being a goofy, relatable dude from the Midwest (he was born in Minnesota, his father worked in mining and his mother worked at a supermarket). Woke millennials, who demand every Hollywood project start with mandatory DEI trainings, could overlook this when he was playing the slovenly “Andy” in Parks & Recreation. But another white Christian male getting ripped and becoming a successful global action star? This they could not abide.
Pratt’s belief in God became the jumping-off point for a series of nasty attacks by the media and even some of his peers in the industry. It was around this time that internet communities started referring to him as “The Worst Chris” when compared to fellow superhero Chrises: Chris Evans, Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth.
In February 2019, Ellen Page responded to Stephen Colbert interviewing Pratt about his “spirituality,” demanding to know why Colbert didn’t also ask Pratt about his “infamously anti lgbtq” church. Page’s tweet sparked numerous news articles proclaiming that Pratt attends a branch of Hillsong, a famous evangelical church that boasts many celebrity patrons. Hillsong, like most Christian churches, does not recognize same-sex marriages, and Pratt tried to defend himself by noting that the church’s doors are “open to everyone.” The media was not convinced; they said Hillsong was cult-like and definitely “anti-LGBTQ”, as Page put it.
The online mob also started to suspect that Pratt was secretly a political conservative. The actor had never spoken publicly about politics, but a few social media posts supporting police officers and expressing patriotism were enough to enrage the left. In January 2019, Pratt posted a meme on Instagram thanking the police on National Law Enforcement Day and revealing that his brother is a cop. The replies are filled with vitriol. In July of that year, a writer and verified Twitter user posted an image of Pratt wearing a t-shirt with the Gadsden flag. The replies included leftists insisting that the flag was a symbol of white supremacy and conservatives pointing out the flag’s historical significance in the US. Either way, the shirt was purchased from an apparel website that donates a portion of its profits to charities for wounded veterans and their families. The fact that the mob was angry about it revealed the insane depths of their Pratt Derangement Syndrome.
Each subsequent manufactured scandal — and Pratt’s booking another TV or movie role — seemed to only spur on the left’s contempt. Their most vile attack came in 2021 after the birth of Pratt’s first child with his second wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger. In an Instagram post, Pratt thanked his wife for giving him a “gorgeous healthy daughter.” Trolls insisted that this was a dig at his ex-wife, Anna Faris, because their son had been born premature and had serious health issues during his first year of life. The media once again elevated the criticism in a series of articles. Ignored was the fact that Faris has spoken positively about her co-parenting relationship with Pratt, and Pratt’s glowing praise of his son. In fact, he called his son “totally healthy” a year after his birth, describing him as “perfect.” Does that sound like someone who is bitter that his first child had health issues?
No matter how strong someone may be, relentless online criticism can take a toll. In a recent interview with Men’s Health, Pratt opened up about the reaction to his post praising Schwarzenegger.
“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***ed up. My son’s gonna read that one day. He’s nine. And it’s etched in digital stone,” Pratt said.
He added, “It really f***ing bothered me, dude. I cried about it.”
Social media users deciding Pratt was “The Worst Chris” in a 2020 internet poll or posting silly memes criticizing his casting as Garfield could be somewhat laughed away. The attacks on Pratt’s personal beliefs and his family, however, show that this internet grudge against the actor has gone way too far.
Pratt comes across in interviews as the type of guy who wants to be liked, and his costars have had nothing but wonderful things to say about him (several Avengers actors and actresses publicly defended him in the aftermath of “The Worst Chris” saga). It’s time for the miserable internet bullies to move on. As evidenced by his recent cinematic success, Pratt, thankfully, is not going anywhere.
