Desperate times! Chris Pratt revealed during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, December 2, that he used to eat off of diners’ plates when he was a waiter.
“That’s how I ate,” the Passengers actor, 37, said while joined by costar Jennifer Lawrence and celeb chef Jamie Oliver. “When you’re in Hollywood or in other places, you need a job that gives you days free so you can try to audition for projects. So I would work weekends and nights. I had no money. No one was coming to the restaurant so I wasn’t making any tips. I’d make, like, $20 or $30 bucks a day, maybe. So it was really a place I’d go to eat. That kitchen fed me for the time I was there.”
He added: “I’ve been busted so many times eating off people’s plates that they were like, ‘You have to stop doing that! It’s really, really bad.'”
Pratt didn’t reveal which Hollywood restaurant he worked at, but described it as a “terrible” and “awful” place. “I was a major contributing factor how terrible this restaurant was,” he joked. “It was just real garbage.”
The Parks and Recreation alum recalled one particular day when he encouraged a customer to get a 32-oz porterhouse steak when she asked what was good on the menu.
“So, [I brought] this steak out to this lady,” he recalled during the British show. “And I’m hiding in the corner watching [to see] how much she’s eating and how much do I get?”
The woman didn’t even finish half of her meal — much to Pratt’s excitement. He scarfed down the rest of the meat in the kitchen, only to later find out that she wanted a doggie bag.
“I said, ‘I’m so sorry. I already threw it in the trash.’ And she said, ‘It’s for my dog. It’s fine. If you don’t mind, just fish it out and put it in a box,'” Pratt said. Quick on his feet, the Guardians of the Galaxy star asked the cook to whip up another one ASAP.
“She ended up being so happy that I would be willing to dig through the garbage for her dog that she gave me a giant tip and she left early because she couldn’t wait for the steak to be done,” he said. “So, I got another steak.” Pratt would later land some steady work with the success of the WB’s Everwood, which aired from 2002 to 2006.
Watch Pratt on The Graham Norton Show in the video above!
