It’s good to be Chris Pratt.
His blockbuster, Jurassic World, continues to break box-office records, he’s slated for upcoming roles in the sci-fi thriller Passengers (opposite Jennifer Lawrence, no less) and a remake of the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven, and according to Entertainment Weekly, the 36-year-old has become “one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men.”
How did Pratt get to be the new It Guy? According to the affable and admirably honest actor, much of his success can be credited to dropping serious poundage—transforming the less-than-toned body that he displayed as Andy Dwyer of Parks and Recreation into a ridiculously-ripped leading man who has muscled his way (quite literally) onto Hollywood’s A-list. Admitting that he once tipped the scales at 300 pounds, Pratt recently told Radio 4’s Front Row that since slimming down, “a huge part of how my career has shifted is based simply on the way that I look, and on the way that I’ve shaped my body to look.”
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When the interviewer asks whether Pratt feels objectified by that, he said yes, noting, “I think it’s appalling that for a long time only women were objectified.”
Good for you, Chris!
Then he continues: “But I think if we really want to really advocate for equality, it’s important to…not objectify women less, but objectify men as often as we objectify women.”
Wait. What?
“There are a lot of beautiful women who got careers out of it, and I’m using it to my advantage,” he says. “And at the end of the day, our bodies are objects. We’re just big bags of flesh and blood and meat and organs that gives us to drive around.”
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Look, Chris. We’re big fans. And you have every right to be proud of your hard-won physique. But you should know that being objectified is not all it’s cracked up to be.
See, superficiality has a way of biting you in your tight, sculpted abs, as many a good-looking actress has learned—the hard way—for decades. It’s all fun and games until the paparazzi sell a photo of your cellulite (do men even get cellulite?), or the Internet explodes with rumors about your paunch (though, fortunately, no one will be mistaking your beer binge as a baby bump). Or some director declares you too old at 37 to persuasively play the love interest to a 55-year-old (oh wait, that only happens to women).
Trust us, in a few years, you will tire of the boy-toy image and start demanding the same kind of respect—and Oscar-worthy roles. Then we’ll be hearing how you’re so much more than just a hot body and pretty face; much more multi-faceted than that guy who gets paid to run from pretend dinosaurs. You’ve got a lot going on upstairs, too! You’re talented, after all. Point is: soon, what you look like will be all anyone sees, and then you’ll know what the word “objectification” really means.
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For now, though, we’ll give you a break. Not only do you seem like a genuinely nice guy, but you also happen to be married to the very cool Anna Faris (Health‘s April cover girl). We’ll chalk your curious and ill-advised remarks up to exhaustion from all those press junkets.
We’ll also admit we love ogling those newly-chiseled abs of yours. Chris Pratt, welcome to our world.
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