Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Chris Pratt on Parks and Recollection

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Hey Inside Conan listeners - we know you love the deepest of dives so today we’re giving you a taste of a very special episode of Parks and Recollection featuring Chris Pratt! Chris opens up about his audition for Parks and Rec, working with Mouse Rat song writer Mark Rivers, adapting the character of Andy to a lovable loser, and so much more! Spread your wings and fly with your favorite podcast team today!

Hi, listeners. This week, our newest Team Coco podcast, Parks and Recollection, has an exciting episode featuring Chris Pratt. Oh, I've heard of him. Action star. Parks and Recollection is kind of like Inside Conan, but for Parks and Rec. They dive deep on every episode of Parks and Recreation. It's hosted by Alan Yang and Rob Lowe. Alan Yang, of course, wrote on Parks for every season, and they really go in deep on the development of character and story.

This week, Parks and Recollection has made it to the season one finale titled Rock Show, and I wanted to share a clip of Rob, Alan, and Chris reminiscing about Chris's take on the hilarious character of Andy Dwyer. Do you remember your audition? Yeah. Oh, I do. I remember my audition was at CBS Radford. I remember walking up to, you know, I was supposed to play this guy who's like a loser,

boyfriend, rock and roll guy. Who's kind of a scum, you know, he's the, you know, impetus for and getting into the parks department, but then kind of disappears. And everybody knew that when they pitched it to me, they were like, it's six episodes. It'll be done. It's a six episodes of TV and special picture was great so i like i made i was very intentional about staying up almost the whole night before to just really come in and be like a wreck because i thought that would be helpful and then so i went in and i remember there was an actor that i had worked with i won't say who it was but that i had worked with before who was auditioning for something and he was was like, Jesus, man, what's

wrong with you? Like, you look terrible. I was like, yeah, I kind of stayed up. I was like, kind of trying to do, you know, ha ha ha ha trying to do this method thing, staying up. He's like, method? More like meth head. And I was like, what a dick. Like, it was like one of those moments like i went into i was like oh it doesn't make a mistake i shouldn't have i shouldn't have stayed up now i look like i'm a method and then uh i walked into the to the lobby and there was everyone there including uh you know people that i recognized that were comedic stars like oh man here we go

the nerves were kicking in and I went into the audition. And for the audition, we started talking and I remember at the time I was playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto at my friend Curtis's house. And a big funny thing that we would do in Grand Theft Auto

is they gave us cheat codes and you could use a cheat code to spawn a boat and then take the boat around. But if you spawn the boat in the middle of the city, a boat could just fall into the road. So we used to walk around. We were a little stone then take the boat around. But if you spawn the boat in the middle of the city, a boat could just fall into the road. So we used to walk around.

We were a little stone. And we would walk around and just drop boats. We thought that was hilarious. And I thought that would be a really funny thing for Andy to be doing. So in the audition, I just immediately started improv-ing and pretended like when she came home from work that I was playing Grand Theft Auto, dropping boats. And I was getting a big laugh.

I remember watching your audition. I remember watching your tape. work that I was playing Grand Theft Auto, dropping boats. And, um, that was getting a big laugh. I remember watching your audition. I remember watching your tape. I knew it was like, oh, this, you know, we watched a few tapes. It's like, yeah, I mean, this guy's so naturally funny. And again, it was probably like, this guy's a little bit too likable, but let's just cast him and see what happens. And then we just rewrote the character entirely. It's like, why not? Right. It's like, let's just, I mean, comparing this to like that version of Andy to obviously later in the run, it's so funny, man. Because he just becomes the most likable character. He's just an idiot who always has good intentions. Incompetent and confident.

The best. That is that combination. Supremely confident. Yeah. That's a great combination. You can't go wrong comedically with that. No, you're right. The irony is built in.

Every time he smiles it's funny because you're like, you have no reason to be laughing. Idiot. If you liked that clip, then please subscribe to Parks and Recollection. Rob and Ellen have so much more in store for you with guests like casting director Allison Jones and Parks writer and

Brooklyn Nine-Nine creator Dan Gore. Also Conan writer. So grab some waffles and treat yourself to Parks and Recollection. Treat yourself.