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Will Poulter reveals Chris Pratt’s advice for joining Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

‘Sometimes James is going to throw things at you and you’re going to be like, “What are you talking about?”’

Nicole Vassell
Tuesday 09 May 2023 11:43 BST
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Chris Pratt praises 'beautiful, painful’ new Guardians of the Galaxy film

Will Poulter has shared the advice given to him by Chris Pratt on working with James Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.

Poulter worked with the action filmmaker for the first time on the latest Marvel film, released on 3 May.

Pratt, who has starred as Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord) since the first Guardians film in 2014, has worked closely with Gunn through these projects.

In a new interview with GQ Hype, Poulter said that Pratt imparted some wisdom to him ahead of his debut as Adam Warlock, a character engineered by the Sovereigns to take the Guardians down.

“I remember Chris Pratt said to me, ‘Sometimes James is going to throw things at you and you’re going to be like, “What are you talking about? You’ve lost your mind.” Just trust him.’ I did that, and by the end, I felt really confident in just doing whatever James said.”

Poulter, 30, then continued his praise of Gunn and his creative techniques by calling him a “visionary”.

“Sometimes words like visionary get overused. But James is a visionary, there is no question,” he stated. “The way he’s able to visualise things and then bring them to life is second to none.”

Poulter also received some guidance from Gunn himself about joining the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, which mainly consisted of letting go of the fear of making mistakes.

“He said, ‘Really, your goal each day should be to f*** up.’ That’s really scary, because I actively spend all my time trying to avoid f***ing up as much as possible and I fail enough as it is when the memo is “don’t f*** up”. So when the memo is, like, ‘embrace the idea of f***ing up’, that’s a wild one, but it was quite freeing by the end of it.”

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Will Poulter, Chris Pratt and James Gunn (Getty)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 has been described as one of the best Marvel properties in years and earned a four-star review from The Independent’s film critic, Clarisse Loughrey.

Yet some viewers took issue with some of the film’s “disturbing” and “graphic” content, sparking questions about its age rating.

Read the full Will Poulter feature online at GQ Hype now.

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