Chris Pratt has had his fair share of controversial moments throughout his career.
While Pratt became well known for his role of the lovable Andy on Parks and Recreation, the actor has also raised eyebrows for insensitive comments he’s made over the years.
In 2020, a meme went viral asking people to choose which Hollywood Chris “has to go” between Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine. So many people selected Pratt that he started to trend on social media.
Pratt jokingly addressed the meme on his Instagram Stories, writing, “I made it into the finals! I’m in the finals! I was picked last. It was very traumatic. Anyone who’s been picked last knows how that feels.”
Keep scrolling to see Pratt’s controversies over the years:
Blue-Collar Representation Comments
Pratt raised eyebrows in 2017 after he claimed that blue-collar Americans weren’t well represented in Hollywood.
“I don’t see personal stories that necessarily resonate with me, because they’re not my stories,” he said in an April 2017 interview with Men’s Health. “I think there’s room for me to tell mine, and probably an audience that would be hungry for them. The voice of the average, blue-collar American isn’t necessarily represented in Hollywood.”
Shortly after his remarks made headlines, Pratt admitted he made a mistake.
“That was actually a pretty stupid thing to say. I’ll own that,” he wrote via X at the time. “There’s a ton of movies about blue-collar America.”
His Hot Take on Subtitles
One month after he made his blue-collar remarks, Pratt made headlines when he told his fans to use the full volume and “not just read the subtitles” when watching a video he put out. The Marvel star was called out by the deaf and hard-of-hearing community for his insensitive request. Pratt later apologized with a video of him using sign language.
“So when I made a video recently with subtitles and requested that people turn up the volume and not just ‘read the subtitles’ it was so people wouldn’t scroll past the video on mute, thus watching and digesting the information in the video. HOWEVER, I realize now doing so was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles,” he wrote via a lengthy Instagram statement. “More than 38 million Americans live with some sort of hearing disability. So I want to apologize. I have people in my life who are hearing-impaired, and the last thing in the world I would want to do is offend them or anybody who suffers from hearing loss or any other disability. So truly from the bottom of my heart, I apologize. Thanks for pointing this out to me. In the future, I’ll try to be a little less ignorant about it.”
His Religious Affiliation
Rumors swirled in 2019 that Pratt, who has been candid about his faith, was a member of the controversial Hillsong Church. The now disgraced megachurch has had anti-LGBTQIA+ views. At the time, Pratt shared that the church he attended was tolerant to all and implied that his divorce from ex-wife Anna Faris was a similar experience to being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
“I go to a church that opens their doors to absolutely everyone,” he wrote via his Instagram Story in February 2019. “Despite what the Bible says about divorce my church community was there for me every step of the way, never judging, just gracefully accompanying me on my walk. They helped me tremendously, offering love and support. It is what I have seen them do for others on countless occasions regardless of sexual orientation, race or gender.”
Three years later, Pratt publicly slammed the rumors about him being involved in Hillsong.
“I never went to Hillsong. I’ve never actually been to Hillsong. I don’t know anyone from that church,” Pratt said in a June 2022 interview with Men’s Health. “Religion has been oppressive as f–k 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.”
Anna Faris Shade
Pratt and Faris, who share son Jack, divorced in 2018. The following year, he tied the knot with Katherine Schwarzenegger. While Pratt and Faris were on good terms after their split, he raised eyebrows in 2020 when social media users thought he shaded the actress in a post thanking Schwarzenegger for giving him a “healthy” daughter. (Faris and Pratt’s son Jack was born prematurely.)
Pratt later revealed that he “cried” when he saw that people interpreted his exciting news as a dig at Faris and Jack.
“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,’” he said in a June 2022 interview with Men’s Health. “That is f–ked up. My son’s gonna read that one day. He’s nine. And it’s etched in digital stone. It really f–king bothered me, dude. I cried about it.”
L.A. Home Demolition Drama
Pratt and Schwarzenegger received backlash in April 2024 after they decided to demolish their Los Angeles home. The pair purchased the historic Zimmerman house so they could be close to Schwarzenegger’s mother, Maria Shriver. The home was initially built in 1953 and many preservationists were upset about the couple’s choice to demolish it.
“Saddened (also angered frankly) to learn of the demolition of the Zimmerman House,” writer DC Hillier wrote via Instagram. “Once located in Los Angeles’s Brentwood neighborhood the home was designed by Craig Ellwood in 1953, with landscaping designed by the acclaimed Garrett Eckbo. Actor Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger bought the property because Schwarzenegger wanted to be close to her mother, who owns two properties across the street.”
Pratt and Schwarzenegger have not addressed the criticism.
