{"id":752743,"date":"2026-08-28T18:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/752743\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T18:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:10:19","slug":"marvels-casting-director-reflects-on-chris-pratts-heartfelt-captain-america-audition-after-that-i-was-paying-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/752743\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel’s casting director reflects on Chris Pratt’s “heartfelt” Captain America audition: “After that, I was paying attention”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marvel Studios<\/a>‘ lead casting director Sarah Halley Finn has recalled Chris Pratt’s failed Captain America audition \u2013 and how it put the then-Parks and Recreation actor on the MCU’s radar.<\/p>\n

Finn, who has helped cast the likes of Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr., and Chadwick Boseman in the MCU, revealed her reaction to Pratt’s reading during an SDCC appearance on The Brandon Davis Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“He did a speech which was not comedic at all, it was kind of a rallying cry,” Finn recounted. “I don’t think this particular [speech] ended up in [Captain America: The First Avenger]. He’s trying to inspire and encourage somebody to move forward with courage. It was really simple, it was very heartfelt. There was just that touch of nobility you want to see in your heroes\u2026 after that audition, I was paying attention.”<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromGamesRadar+<\/p>\n

And pay attention she did. Finn eventually got Pratt into a room with James Gunn<\/a> for Guardians of the Galaxy and the lead role of Peter Quill\/Star-Lord \u2013 despite the actor’s best efforts.<\/p>\n

“I was stuck on him,” Finn said. “He didn’t want to audition for that at all\u2026 I was so persistent to the point of being annoying. Even at that point, James Gunn was convinced he wasn’t right and didn’t want to see him.”<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Three Guardians of the Galaxy movies and multiple Avengers movies later, it turned out just fine for Chris Pratt in the end \u2013 even if he didn’t get the first role he was angling for.<\/p>\n

Of course, Chris Evans would be picked to play Steve Rogers. Other notable actors who auditioned include Wilson Bethel, who went on to play Daredevil villain Bullseye, one-time Reed Richards multiverse actor John Krasinski, John Walker actor Wyatt Russell, and a certain Sebastian Stan.<\/p>\n

Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox<\/p>\n

So, if anyone else out there has auditioned for Captain America, you probably have a Marvel role in your future.<\/p>\n

Want to relive the MCU’s best moments? Here’s our essential guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marvel Studios‘ lead casting director Sarah Halley Finn has recalled Chris Pratt’s failed Captain America audition \u2013 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-752743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}