Photo: NBC

That was real pain you saw on Chris Pratt’s face during last night’s episode of Parks and Recreation, in which Andy began training for the police academy. “I ran one lap and my thighs kept rubbing together. They got pretty raw,” Pratt told Vulture during a recent set visit. He was ripped earlier this year while shooting Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, but since June has gained more than 40 pounds in preparation for playing a lawyer in the comedy Starbuck, starring Vince Vaughn as a man who learns he’s fathered 533 children through sperm donations. “This is what 275 looks like,” he said sitting in his trailer, contentedly rubbing his protruding belly. “All man right here.”

We’d been discussing Andy’s progress in becoming a cop when Pratt revealed that he’d been fattening up in the grand tradition of Robert De Niro and Rob McElhenney. He wants to hit 300 pounds by November, and at the moment his energy is almost non-existent. “If I just keep eating I can maintain a buzz, like a sugar food buzz. But if I’m in the background of a scene, I’m definitely sitting,” he said. Pratt’s wife Anna Faris doesn’t mind his expanding frame because he says he’s been doing it in a healthy way via “super gross but pretty tasty” weight gain shakes. Well, at least when he’s not indulging in fast food. “I will hit a couple of burgers like it’s laced with crack cocaine. Oooh, I love it.”

“I just like to gain weight and lose weight,” he said. (And indeed, two years ago he showed Vulture his regimen for packing on the pounds he lost for Moneyball.) “It’s a rollercoaster. I just want to do this. I want to touch God.” He then added, “Sorry, I almost have to take a nap now just from that talk.”