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'Onward' stars Chris Pratt and Tom Holland talk about magic, road trips and brotherhood
Los Angeles — Hollywood actors Chris Pratt and Tom Holland reunite in "Onward," a computer-animated urban fantasy about two teenage elf brothers who received a wizard’s staff that can bring their late father back.
The "Avengers: Endgame" stars, who voice the characters Barley and Ian Lightfoot in the Pixar-Disney film, talked to us recently about their relationships with their brothers and fathers, the magic in their lives, handling fame, relationships and even living in a van among other things.
Chris Pratt
This movie is like “Field of Dreams.” It’s about connecting with a father and a brother. Talk about how it resonated with you thematic wise.
You are absolutely right. It’s not the first time someone’s compared it to “Field of Dreams.” Especially men of my generation, it’s really speaking to. It’s emotional. It’s moving. It’s a story of brotherhood, which is really nice. I don’t think you have to be a boy to appreciate it. Anyone with a pulse will be moved by this movie. But it does speak specifically to a relationship of two brothers, especially if that relationship is founded in the trauma of a lost parent. It’s really specific for me. I have both of those things. My brother and I were very, very close. We lost our dad two weeks before “Guardians of the Galaxy” came out. This movie was really touching for me from the moment Dan Scanlon gave me the pitch and for him, it’s very personal. He expressed that to me in the pitch meeting and I was moved basically to tears from that moment forward and instantly dedicated myself to whatever he needed to help to try to tell his story.
So Barley, your character, has a special relationship with the panel van Guinevere. You lived in a van for a time. Can you take us back to that time and your first car?
My first car was a 1986 Toyota Camry. The thing was beat up and I drove it into the ground. But then after that I bought a van and I actually have had three vans in my life. One was a van very similar to this van. I bought it for 50 dollars. It leaked oil. It leaked transmission fluid. It was a nightmare to drive. It barely would work. It barely would turn on, but I would drive it for about five or six months in my senior year in High School and it was a lot of fun. I was inspired by “Teen Wolf,” the character who has the van in “Teen Wolf.” I loved it. I would surf on the roof and do everything that they did in “Teen Wolf.” Then I had a minivan when I was a door-to-door salesman and then when I lived in Hawaii we had another van which is my primary residence for about eight or nine months, right on the beach.
You are probably one of the best success stories in Hollywood. You had a divorce (actress Anna Faris) but you still have a happy family (new wife Katherine Schwarzenegger). What was the secret to be able to go through that transition without any nightmarish stories in the press or people being upset with each other?
I think just mindfulness on both parts and trying to find amicable co-parenting examples and looking to them. At the end of the day people can be not right for one another, but it doesn’t mean that they necessarily have to hate one another. I know there are scenarios where that exists, and I am thankful every day that I am not in that kind of a situation. We have always been really respectful of one another and our number one priority is always making sure that Jack (his son with Faris) is happy. He’s got two parents who love him very much and that bond right there is important enough to face whatever difficulty being amicable may look like on a day-to-day basis.
Talk about the first time you met your father-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There’s the first time I met Arnold and then there’s the first time I “met” Arnold, my father-in-law. So obviously I was, as all kids were, especially of my era of the late 80s, early 90s, he was a god to all of us. We loved “Predator” and “Commando” and all of the movies that he did, “Terminator” and all of the comedies and everything. I followed his career forever. He’s an icon and a legend and he still is. So that was great. The first time I met him, it’s nice that there’s a magic curtain in Hollywood, and just like in “The Wizard of Oz,” pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. There’s a lot of smoke and façade and thankfully I’m pretty comfortably on the same side of that curtain as he is. So when I met him, he’s just a man and he’s my father-in-law and I respect him. He’s Katherine’s dad and he’s a great dad and I’ve always admired him as an actor, but I’ve come to admire him as a man.
How was that journey for you from being a superhero to this iconic person to so many people?
Well that’s a great question. I think if you were to just thrust me into this position right now, I think it would be very jarring. But I think just the nature of this, it’s sort of step-by-step, day-by-day. You tend to get used to things that seemed unimaginable at the onset. When I first auditioned for “Guardians of the Galaxy” and they said one day we think you are going to have to go toe-to-toe with Robert Downey Jr, and in that moment I was like oh my God, they think that I can go toe-to-toe with Robert Downey Jr. I can’t believe what they think of me. And now I have gotten to know him, I consider him a friend. I have his phone number in my phone; we hang out; I see him on set, and he’s just another guy to me. So, it’s like over time, you get used to these things.
If you are wise you will say I need to stop and look around me and recognize how incredible this is and stop and smell the roses. And it’s important to do that and to tell yourself to do that. But it’s really hard to do. And for the most part it’s a giant whirlwind and you are just focusing on the next thing that pops up in your calendar, you don’t know what it is. And time goes by really quickly and if I have learned anything through the course of this, it’s that it will teach you just how special things that you already had were, your family, your own house, your bed. People ask me where I want to go on vacation and I say I have been all around the world. I want to go home. That’s where I want to go on vacation, to my living room.
You worked with Tom before and you did the voice of your characters together in the booth. How was that experience because it is unusual for two actors to be working in the booth together.
You are right. It is unusual from my understanding, usually they isolate people in sound booths because it’s just an audio issue. But I think it might have been even, Chris and Phil in “The Lego Movies,” after having directed “21 Jump Street” they had Jonah and Channing together and they understood the magic of comedy that comes from people who have an improv background. And you might not be able to tap into that stuff if you are just sitting there reading lines and repeating lines. And so they had us get together for a few of the scenes where we are interacting with one another to just see if there were any organic interactions that they could borrow from to rewrite and re-record. So the stuff where I am coming in the bedroom or into the living room and wrestling him and that kind of stuff, that is the kind of stuff that we get to put up on its feet and they could understand how that could play together. Ultimately, it’s not the best environment to improvise because then you are overlapping with one another, you are messing up someone’s audio track, or someone is laughing and it ruins the take. It’s not the best thing to do, it’s not the best way to do everything, but it’s smart to have a little bit of that.
What is the magic in your life?
I think the answer would be something that also resonates in this movie, which is, in this film we see technology is eclipsing magic, what was once magic is now much easier to do with technology. And I think for me the magic in my life is departing from technology as much as possible, getting up to the farm and focusing on relationships and people whom I love that mean the most to me that don’t see me through a filter, the people who don’t see me with makeup on, who just know me and they are real and they are my family. That to me is where the real magic lies. I would say that’s nice how that resonates in the movie and gives you that sense that we are losing a little bit of the luster of the real world through the convenience of technology. It’s interesting.
If you had a magic wand, what would you use it for?
Tom had a great answer, which was if he had a magic wand, he would just clean up the oceans. That would be cool if you could just wave a wand and get plastic out of the ocean. That would be nice. I would try to do something to protect the Earth I think it would be good for a little while. And as far as bringing people back from the dead, in my belief I will see them again anyways, and I’d probably bring them back here and they’d be like what the hell are you doing? I was having so much fun, why did you bring me back to this shithole? And I would be like shithole? I have a wand, watch this, I am going to clean it up. So maybe cleaning up the Earth would be nice.
Tom Holland
What’s the magic in your life?
I'd say my family. I'm very, very close to all my brothers and I'm very lucky that we're all such good friends. I'd say they're probably the magic in my life. The charity that my mom runs, The Brothers Trust that we are obviously front with her, is something I'm very proud of and something that we all really enjoy doing. That again stems from my family. So, I'd have to say my family is the magic in my life.
Is there any particular animated film from your own adolescence that holds a special memory?
I think the original “Robin Hood”, with the fox and the vixen, for me growing up was a really massive film for me. I loved that. Of recent years,”Coco” is my favorite Pixar movie hands down. I have a really amazing relationship with my granny, Tess, and she's quite similar to Mama Coco in that film. So, for me that hit home pretty hard.
How are you managing fame and coping with everything?
I'm very lucky in my career to have people who I look up to who are readily available for whenever I need them. For example, Chris Pratt in this film. Since I got cast as Spider-Man, he's really been like a big brother to me. He's always on the other end of the phone should I need to ask him advice about dealing with this concept of being famous and people feeling like they own a little piece of you. It's really my friends around me in the industry, because I look up to Chris Pratt, I look up to Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett and to Robert. I would like to be like them in the future so it's very easy for me to just copy them, see how they've dealt with stuff and to try and be like them I guess.
Talk about road trips and your journeys of self-discovery.
I wouldn't say a road trip. My entire adolescence I've been on the road. So, I guess you could say I've been on a road life for the last 10 years, which has been amazing, and I've loved it. I think I've spoken to you in five or six different cities around the world and that's a really amazing thing to be able to say. But you learn a lot about yourself being on the road because you're always with new people, you're seeing new faces and you're having to adapt to new environment. I'm very lucky that I'm at that stage in my career now where I bring my friends with me and I bring my family with me so I'm never really by myself.
What is your favorite vacation?
My favorite vacation is to go snowboarding because I can wear a mask all day and it doesn't make me look like a creep. If I went to the beach and wore a mask people would be like, "Whoa, stay away from that guy!" But on a ski slope it's totally allowed so I can ski all day with my brothers, and no one will even know that I'm there.
Have you ever been in a situation where you took a young kid actor who was 12 or 13 under your wing on the set because you know how it felt to be the kid surrounded by grownups?
I've definitely worked with young actors before. I remember being a kid working with Chris Hemsworth for the first time on “Heart at the Sea.” He was obviously Thor and I was a huge fan of the Marvel Universe. I just remember him being so nice and welcoming. We all got along really. I just make sure that whenever there's a young kid on set that he walks away having a good time rather than having a negative experience on set. It's not so much I've taken anyone under my wing.
Since this movie’s about two brothers, and you are the eldest of four brothers, talk about your relationship with your brothers and how difficult it is to be the eldest child.
It is tricky to be the eldest child, especially when you're doing what I'm doing, because my parents can't ask their friends like, "How do you deal with your son disappearing off to LA every three weeks?" They're like, "He doesn't. He works at a pub." My parents have also found it as complicated as I have. The nice thing about my brothers is I want to be more like them than they want to be like me. It's a really grounding experience going home because at the end of the day they beat me in golf, they know more about rugby, they know more about football. They're like my best friends really. They bring me down to earth because it's very easy to get lost here in Hollywood. Especially, when you're a 23-year-old actor who has been lucky enough to be given all this amazing success. It's very easy to get lost. I have got lost a few times. Not properly lost, but I've had a few darker times and my brothers are always the ones to bring me back to reality.
I’m really intrigued what it means “you got lost.”
Yeah, I knew that was coming. I shouldn't have said that!
Well, it is interesting. I really enjoy you being so open and honest.
Getting lost, it's dealing with success. It's dealing with the idea of being famous. It's dealing with the idea of giving up your privacy, dealing with love life, dealing with should I do this job? Should I not do this job? Should I take this meeting? How should I behave in this certain situation? Am I doing what's best for me or am I doing what's best for the studio? All these things you have to learn really quickly because unfortunately in this business you will be taken advantage of.
And you have experienced that?
I've been very lucky with my studio experience. Tom Rothman is a really great friend of mine and has always helped me through any difficult process I was going through. That's the same for Disney. Bob Iger, Kevin Feige, Victoria Alonso, Louis D'Esposito, they've all been almost like godparents to me while I'm over here in LA. So, any tricky situation I've ever found myself in, it's only been one phone call away before I can get it handled, which has been really nice.
What about people who like to exploit you?
Yeah, I don't like those people very much!
How do your brothers help you?
They're the first people to say no. You sit here and I can say, "Excuse me, can someone get me a coffee," and someone would get me a coffee. I go home and say, "Harry, would you make me a coffee," and he goes, "F*** off, I'm not making you a coffee." So, it's that kind of thing!
Talk about your first driving lessons.
I was driving here once with a friend really early in the morning. I'd flown in from London the night before and then we were driving to work. I was driving and I was so tired. In my head I was like, "Something feels wrong. I don't quite know where it is, but something just doesn't feel right." Then he looked up from his phone and was like, "You're on the wrong side of the road!" I was like, "Oh, right."
My mom actually taught me to drive because my dad's too impatient. Obviously, in England we learn to drive stick shift. So we're stalling the car all the time and my dad's shouting at me. It's not the best environment to learn how to drive a car. So, my mom actually taught me, and I passed first time. My brother Sam recently has just passed his driver's test and getting in the car with him is terrifying. They should have failed him 100%. He is not ready to be driving by himself.
Will there be a “Spider-Man 3?"
Yes, is the answer to that question. I'm super happy about it. We will be shooting “Spider-Man 3” in July, I believe, in Atlanta. So, I'll be going back to where it started. The story for “Spider-Man 3” is absolutely insane. They pitched it to me the other day and I couldn't be more excited about wearing Lycra again! It's going to be awesome. It's going to be really exciting. As per me showing up in other Marvel movies, I'm not sure as to yet what they want me to do. But I'm sure in the future I will get the phone call that they'll want me to again wear Lycra for them.
Will Zendaya be your girlfriend again?
In “Spider-Man 3”, Zendaya will most definitely be in the film. As to the relationship between Peter and MJ, I'm not too sure what it will be. But we'll be very lucky to have Zendaya back for “Spider-Man 3.” —MGP, GMA News
