The last couple years have been excellent for Chris Pratt's acting career. Thanks to appearing in movies like Guardians of the Galaxy, The LEGO Movie and Jurassic World, he's quickly become a notable movie star. He's next appearing in the sci-fi flick Passengers, during which he was able to work with The Matrix actor Laurence Fishburne. It was then that Pratt learned a valuable lesson from his Passengers costar: sometimes it's okay to say no to the fans.
While plugging Passengers, Chris Pratt explained during his appearance on Sway in the Morning (around the 11:00 mark) how in the midst of hanging out with Laurence Fishburne (even getting to call him by the nickname "Fish," at Fishburne's insistence), he learned about how Fishburne dealt with his own rising fame when The Matrix was a global phenomenon. Pratt explained:
I learned a lot from watching him and from working with him. Both on screen stuff and also dealing with life now. My life has, it's safe to say it's changed significantly over the last few years, and Fish said that happened to him when he did The Matrix. He said all of a sudden it changed. When he went out into the public it was changed, and people suddenly wanted a piece of him and people wanted to take pictures with him. And he saw me dealing with that, and he was like, 'You have my permission to say, "Not today, baby."' So I'm gonna start saying that now. If someone says, 'Can I get a picture?,' I'm gonna say, 'Not today, baby.'
Those three simple, but wise, words, are certainly applicable to Chris Pratt's new stardom status. Pratt was already a TV star last decade thanks to his leading roles on Everwood and Parks & Recreation, but after the latter premiered, that's when he started scoring more high profile movie roles, like Scott Hatteberg in Moneyball. Then The LEGO Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014 propelled him to worldwide fame. Now he's reached the point where it's difficult for him to go out in public and not be noticed or hounded by adoring fans.
Fortunately, Laurence Fishburne has had years to solve such a problem, having built up his own fanbase appearing in all three Matrix movies, Apocalypse Now, Boyz n the Hood and What's Love Got to Do with It, among others. Sometimes these guys, along with every other famous actor, just need to tell the folks eager to snap a picture with them that now's not the time. That's not to say Chris Pratt now won't ever take pictures with his fans, but dropping the occasional 'Not today, baby' will provide respite should he find himself overwhelmed. It's a good thing he received Fishburne's permission to use that line!
Passengers hits theaters on Wednesday, December 21. Following that, Chris Pratt will reprise Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, while Laurence Fishburne will appear John Wick: Chapter Two as The Bowler King.
