Actors often struggle for years before they get their first big break in Hollywood.
But making it big in the movie business brings its own set of problems.
And Chris Pratt revealed one surprising decision he made with his first Hollywood paycheck.
Chris Pratt talks about spending his first big check from a movie
Actor Chris Pratt has become one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood after starring in the Jurassic World franchise and for his role as Star-Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He talked about getting his first big Hollywood paycheck during an appearance on Sway in the Morning on SiriusXM.
Pratt said he was stunned by the amount of money he received for appearing in a TV movie.
“I was under the impression that I would never run out of money,” Pratt recalled. “The first paycheck I got, I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ I mean, you know, I had lived on very little money for a long time, so the first big job I got — I remember it was called a Schedule F job, and this was, like, a TV movie — I got paid $75,000 and I was like, ‘I’m never gonna wait [tables] again. F*** you b***es, I am leaving.”
Pratt waited tables at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Maui, Hawaii before becoming a full-time actor.
His major role was in the WB drama Everwood, starting in 2002.
But he quickly realized that his TV movie paycheck wouldn’t last forever after he burned through it from traveling.
“About two months later, I was like, ‘Where’d that money go?’” Pratt continued. “I went back to Maui, I went to Australia, I traveled the world. I was like, ‘Well, I’m gonna probably invest, I’m probably gonna get a yacht.’ I didn’t know how, that was just a crazy amount of money to me. I never could have possibly imagined making that amount of money and it went very quickly.”
Pratt said that he wasn’t instilled with financial awareness while growing up.
“Because also, we never had any money growing up,” Pratt said. “No one ever taught me financial literacy. I didn’t know what to do with money. It was like, it would come in, I would spend it, you know what I mean? It took a good amount of time for me to kind of stop and say, ‘All right, I gotta get wise about this.’ I have to think about, what am I gonna do?”
He added that coming up with a financial plan was one of the steps toward growing up.
Chris Pratt talks about when he realized he was a success
Host Sway Calloway asked Pratt when he realized that he made it as a successful actor.
“I did a TV show called Everwood back in 2003, maybe 21 years ago, and I bought my mom a house,” Pratt explained. “That’s when I felt like I made it.”
Pratt got his first acting role when he served actress Rae Dawn Chong at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
She asked him to appear in a short film she was directing called Curse Part 3, which became his first credited role in 2000.
That launched the career of Chris Pratt, which saw him become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
