(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Wed 20 August 2025 16:45, UK
If there’s one person in modern Hollywood who sums up the clear and distinct difference between an actor and a movie star better than anyone else, it’s hard to look beyond Chris Pratt.
While Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds are definitely part of that conversation, considering they’re constantly ranked among the highest-paid names in the business and have a track record of box office success few can better, Pratt has shown himself to be in a different league.
Reynolds is capable of doing great dramatic work, as evidenced by Buried and The Voices, and ‘The Rock’ will get his chance when Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine is released. However, has anyone seen a Chris Pratt performance that’s made them sit back, take notice, and think, ‘Wow, this guy has got some serious chops’? Almost certainly not.
He’s very good at playing Chris Pratt-type characters, which is the bare minimum to be expected. When he’s cast as charming rogues in broad blockbusters, he does everything that’s expected of him, which has made the former Parks and Recreation standout one of the most successful stars of the 21st century.
By the same metrics that named Scarlett Johansson the highest-grossing actor of all time, Pratt is fifth in those standings. His career box office is rapidly closing in on $15 billion, he played the lead in the $2.5-billion-grossing Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, and he’s been in six movies that earned over a billion.
That’s a movie star, but not necessarily an actor. Vincent D’Onofrio’s western, The Kid, is the only non-blockbuster he’s appeared in since 2013, so he knows where his bread his buttered. That doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate greatness when he sees it, though, after describing one of his legendary co-stars as the best who’s still breathing.
After being anointed as the second coming of Tom Hanks by Denzel Washington when they were shilling their Magnificent Seven remake, Pratt responded in kind. “Now I feel like I have to repay a compliment with a compliment,” he said. “Denzel’s a legend. I learned a lot just watching him. He may be the greatest living actor and one of the greatest actors of all time.”
He’s probably not going to be troubling the Academy Awards any time soon, if ever, but that doesn’t invalidate his point. After all, is any list of cinema’s greatest living actors even worth the paper it’s printed on if it doesn’t feature Washington’s name? No, it is not, because he undoubtedly is.
For the last four decades, he’s laid the blueprint for how to plant one foot in both worlds, something Pratt should really learn from. There’s Denzel Washington, the two-time Oscar-winning and ten-time nominated actor, producer, and director who’s one of his, or any other generation’s, finest.
On the other hand, there’s Denzel Washington: Action Hero, with any film that requires him to track down, battle, or eliminate bad guys almost guaranteed to be a hit. Pratt is a movie star, but if he wants to find out how to master both sides of the business, he’s well-placed to learn from the best.
Related Topics