One of the most popular actors on the planet, with offers coming at him thick and fast, Chris Pratt knew instantly that he would ride with The Magnificent Seven as soon as the call came in. His reaction was, he says, one of “utter joy.” At the time, fittingly enough, Pratt was immersed in western lore, away on a trip in Texas with some close friends and enjoying listening to a classic novel set in the Old West.
“I was out of cell service,” he explains, “so when I got back into cell service, I had something like 20 text messages from my manager and agent being like, ‘Dude, where are you? You have to answer the phone! This thing has come in, this offer for this western. It just all lined up so beautifully, and it was like, ‘this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing right now.’ The signs were everywhere. My reaction was just one of utter joy. I was already having the time of my life out in the woods, so it was just the icing on an already pretty brilliant cake that weekend. I was in Texas when I got that news. I was oddly sitting on a tree listening to Lonesome Dove, one of the greatest Western tales. I was just contemplating life and thinking about cowboys, and thinking about how life was different and slowed down for people in the West. This movie came up and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is perfect. I have to do this movie.’”
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, The Magnificent Seven features an all-star cast with Pratt joining Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Byung-hun Lee and Martin Sensmeier to portray the band of brothers who team up to protect a small town from a tyrant land robber, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) and his army of henchmen. Pratt is a fan of westerns and remembers seeing the original Magnificent Seven (1960), directed by John Sturges and starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Robert Vaughn, a few years ago. “I was maybe 25 when I saw it, and that’s the first and only time I saw it. I remember really liking it. I’m a fan of Westerns, and it’s one that I really liked. I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s their favourite Western; my favourite Western is probably The Westerner, or maybe Rio Bravo. I certainly didn’t know I would one day be in a movie with the same title.”
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