LOS ANGELES — Chris Pratt’s Hollywood rise is almost the stuff of comic book stories.

The 37-year-old action hunk returns this week in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but his path to getting the role of Star-Lord/Peter Quill — the leader of a ragtag bunch of intergalactic misfits that includes a fast-talking raccoon (Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon), a green-skinned assassin (Zoe Saldana’s Gamora), a tell-it-like-it-is bruiser (Dave Bautista’s Drax the Destroyer) and an insufferably cute tree-like creature (Vin Diesel’s Groot) — wasn’t easy. And if you were making wagers five years ago, Pratt wouldn’t have been a sure bet to be one of the faces leading the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Pratt, who famously went from being a door-to-door coupon salesman, to a waiter at Bubba Gump (a chain based on the Forrest Gump movie), landed his first role in Rae Dawn Chong’s Cursed Part 3 in 2000.

For the rest of the aughts, he flitted between television shows — including Everwood and the O.C. — before landing the part of schlubby Andy Dwyer on Parks and Rec.

When writer-director James Gunn cast him in the first Guardians movie in 2014, suddenly Pratt, who is married to Mom actress Anna Faris, was an overnight star. He cemented his status as Hollywood’s leading action-man with 2015’s Jurassic World.

“It was one of those 15-point turns,” Pratt says of his career turnaround. “It wasn’t a U-turn, it was a dangerous, 15-point turn on a highway where you’re just hoping that you won’t get run over by cars headed in either direction.”

Asked to pinpoint the one instance his career took a curve that set everything else in motion, Pratt pauses thoughtfully.

“There are a few moments I could point to — being cast in Guardians of the Galaxy is a big one — that opened up a lot of doors and shifted my career in a way that I was no longer at the mercy of other peoples’ decisions; they were at the mercy of mine.”

Now that he’s a proven hitmaker, he decides the kinds of movies he wants to star in.

“I can say yes or no now, they can’t say yes or no to me because I’m auditioning for whatever it is — and when I was starting out, I auditioned for all of it. I couldn’t afford to have quality control, I just went out for everything and if they said yes, I was doing it. That’s how it was. Look, I was turned down for movies that were hideous bombs that would have ruined my career if I was a part of them and that’s because they said no to me,” he laughs.

But he’s thankful for the lean years in Hollywood.

“I think all the lessons I learned up to that point (of being cast in Guardians 1) really helped me to make the right decisions now that I have that power.”

During a chat with the Sun in a West Hollywood hotel, Pratt reflected on the unlikely success of the Guardians of the Galaxy, getting to work with his idols, whether he can ever see giving up playing Star-Lord and why Vol. 2 will be the biggest spectacle movie ever (until Avengers: Infinity War comes out).

The first Guardians movie caught everyone off guard. Was it daunting trying to follow that up?

That is the challenge, I think. How do you surprise somebody twice? The Guardians of the Galaxy benefitted from people having zero expectations, or maybe low expectations — at best. It benefitted from that. This time around it was a challenge. We did feel the pressure that people were waiting. So the way that (James) Gunn handled that, and he said this to me right off the bat when he pitched me the first movie, was to make a different movie. He said, ‘I’m going to take the formula that any sane person would use to create a sequel — that roadmap that worked, you see that all the time — sequels come out, they repeat the same beats, characters learn the same lessons and people love it — and throw it out.’ The only thing he wanted to repeat was the surprise. So he had to take the formula and throw it away and create a whole new different movie. He ran the risk of failing and he didn’t, which is why Vol. 2 is so amazing.

In Guardians 2, you get to work with Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell — the stars of one of the greatest movies ever, Tango & Cash. What was that like?

Yeah dude, that movie’s so great. I had a surreal moment last night backstage at the premiere talking to Sylvester Stallone about films and about heroes and storytelling and the film Spartacus. He talked about how that film moved people and how Guardians does that. He said that these are the heroes for a new generation.

Working with Kurt, it’s one of the most profound things about being an actor. I used to wonder what it would be like if I became a big actor and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and all this stuff and what that would be like. The one thing I overlooked was how one day these icons would become my peers. They’d become friends.

You got to get that fanboy stuff out of the way — and I did with both of them — but that takes three minutes and then you’re left with two people on the other side of the curtain and you’re having real conversations with these people and it’s pretty cool.

Could you see yourself playing this character in 20 years?

I think so. It’s a great character and I can’t believe I’m the guy who got to play him on screen first. I’m sure eventually there will be more incarnations of the Guardians of the Galaxy… There’s going to be lot of versions of them, I’m just lucky that they’re all going to be held up next to my version. That’s pretty cool. I’m the first guy who gets to do it.

I think Quill is always going to be in the lexicon, whether I get to play him the whole time, I don’t know. The beauty is, he’s going to be alive longer than me. My performances in these movies are going to be around long after I’m dead.

The Guardians are going to meet Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers in next summer’s Infinity War. What can fans expect from that superhero film?

It’s exactly what the fans want. I’ve heard over and over from people, ‘When are the Guardians going to meet up with the Avengers?’ I was never sure how that would happen or if that would happen, but then they announced it and called us and told us it was happening. We’ve shot most of it — my stuff — and I can tell you, the fans are not going to be disappointed. It’s going to be really freaking cool. It’s been a long time coming. This is a decade’s worth of deep storytelling that all leads up to this thing.

You described Guardians 2 as the ‘biggest spectacle movie of all time,’ so how would you describe Avengers: Infinity War?

Well, so far, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the biggest spectacle movie of all time — that is all time up until now. Avengers (Infinity War) is going to be a pretty big spectacle. I think you’re talking 40 heroes — that is a huge spectacle. I was using James’ vernacular by calling Vol. 2 the biggest spectacle of all time. I heard him say that and I thought, ‘That sounds right.’ But I have to amend that. I think this sequel transcends the genre in a way. It’s a deep motion picture and something different than just a big spectacle film. There’s a difference between dime-store novels and literature and this is like literature. It’s going to stand the test of time. It’s maybe this decade’s movie, if not a longer period of time.

So what’s your favourite film so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Oh, it’s Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2, hands down. It is, no doubt. And then after that it's Guardians 1, again.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens Friday, May 5.

Twitter: @markhdaniell

MDaniell@postmedia.com