Chris Pratt Thanks Kevin Feige For Casting Him in the MCU When He Was “Kind of Fat”: “Nobody Was Thinking, ‘Now There’s An Action Star'”

In the middle of a big moment for Marvel — fresh off the huge success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and with Avengers: Doomsday looming — Kevin Feige was honored as Pioneer of the Year by the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation.

The event, which took over the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday, recognized the Marvel chief creative officer and Marvel Studios president for his career and philanthropic contributions, with Chris Pratt, Jon Favreau and Disney’s Alan Bergman all on hand to honor Feige.

Pratt had the room laughing as he recalled how, before landing the role of Star-Lord/Peter Quill in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, he auditioned for Feige “probably 7 or 8,000 times before he said, ‘You know what, this guy just may be able to act.’ Either that, or he just really needed a third Chris to complete the set.”

He admitted that when he was initially cast in the first Guardians movie, “It took someone with real vision to look at me and say, ‘Yeah, that’s a guy who could guard the galaxy.’ Because at that point, if anyone knew me, I was Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation; I was funny, sure, but I was kind of fat. Nobody was thinking, ‘Now there’s an action star who can carry a big-budget sci-fi film franchise.'” Pratt noted how he’d previously auditioned for Captain America and a supporting role in Thor all without success, and “by the time Marvel was casting Guardians of the Galaxy, I had decided I was done auditioning for Marvel movies.”

Of course, the star eventually went in and landed the role, as Pratt explained how “Kevin and James [Gunn] and the team at Marvel Studios saw something in me that I desperately wanted to believe was there myself, even though I had pretty much given up on it.” He added that what means the most isn’t just that Feige “gave me the opportunity, it’s that he gave me the opportunity when it wasn’t necessarily obvious to everyone else that it would work. That’s what great producers do,” while also pointing to Feige’s early support of Gunn, Ryan Coogler, Taika Waititi, Destin Daniel Cretton and the Russo Brothers.

Favreau also spoke about his longtime partnership with Feige, stretching back to 2008’s Iron Man, and how an evening having drinks in Jeff Bridges’ trailer while on set helped clarify what was important to both of them. “Even though we’re in the eye of the hurricane and we’re like laying railroad tracks down in front of a moving, rolling engine, we knew that this was something that we should appreciate,” Favreau said. “It ended up being a big one for both of us and we knew it at the time. It was an opportunity, and we were launching into something that was going to last so long and still continue to this day.”

Taking the stage in one of his signature hats — his full collection was displayed in the hotel lobby for guests to admire on their way into the event — Feige spoke about his love of movies leading him to where he is now, 25 years into his Marvel journey.

“Doomsday is only our 39th movie — we’ve still got a lot of stories to tell, a lot of movies to make,” he declared, admitting that “it’s really easy to get bogged down in the details and the day-to-day” of production but it’s worth it once he steps back and remembers who they are making the movies for.

“If you get really lucky, they keep coming back and doing it again, whether they see the same movie seven times or come back to see it again seven years later like we saw this weekend with Avengers: Endgame Encore, which was pretty amazing,” Feige continued. “In this industry that is constantly being told moviegoing is dying, we’ve gotten to make movies that bring people back to the theater.”

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Bettany, Hailee Steinfeld, Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito also sent video messages for the celebration, and the night raised $1.9 million for the Pioneers Assistance Fund, which provides financial support and social services to in-need members of the motion picture distribution and exhibition community.