Chris Pratt Talks Marriage, Fatherhood and His Sexy Superhero Bod

The star of Guardians of the Galaxy gets candid – and hilarious – with PEOPLE

Photo: Jeff Lipsky

Chris Pratt just might be the perfect guy.

He can turn a beer belly into a six-pack on command. He willingly French-braids his wife s hair. And he even knows the secret to calming down a fussing toddler – at least his own, Jack, his 23-month-old son with wife Anna Faris.

“Monster trucks,” Pratt says with a warm chuckle.

“He was crying the other day, and I had him on my lap. So we watched this 15-minute highlight reel of Grave Digger on YouTube, and dude, it was so badass! He and I both were just wide-eyed. Now he goes around saying, ‘Monster trucks, monster trucks!'”

Once best known as dopey and doughy Andy Dwyer on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, Pratt transformed into a steely-abbed comic-book hero in the summer popcorn movie Guardians of the Galaxy.

But don’t think for one second that Pratt, 35, has lost any of his horsepower-loving, squirrel-hunting, wisecracking everyman vibe.

This is a rising A-lister cut from unpretentious cloth.

“There’s nobody out there like him,” says Guardians director James Gunn.

“He’s hilarious and masculine with an old-time movie star charisma and a likable vulnerability that is uniquely his own.”

Pratt’s own take?

“Just be yourself, and hopefully they can shape an epic space adventure around exactly who you are.”