Chris Pratt is defending his extended family member Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and tackling entrenched partisan political beliefs.
The Marvel and Jurassic World star was asked about RFK Jr. while appearing on Bill Maher‘s Club Random podcast and spoke warmly about the controversial Health and Human Services Secretary. Pratt’s wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, is RFK Jr.’s cousin.
“There’s certain things [that RFK Jr.] oversees that seem to be supported in a bipartisan way — like getting terrible toxic stuff out of our kids food,” Pratt said. “I think that’s a great thing. If you just do that, that’s amazing. I’d hate to be so mired in hatred for the president that any success from his administration is something I’d be having an allergic reaction to. To be like, ‘Oh, well, if they do it, I don’t want it to happen. I’ll put Clorox in my children’s cereal myself!’ Be reasonable here. There’s certain things that would be a good thing to have. I want them all to be successful.”
RFK Jr. has made reducing ultra-processed foods and environmental toxins from foods a priority in his Make America Healthy Again initiative, while citing an increase in chronic diseases during childhood. He’s also criticized sedentary, technology-driven lifestyles in children and the overprescribing of medications.
Continued Pratt: “I’ve spent a number of occasions hanging with him [in a] strictly family dinner kind of vibe,” Pratt. “I really got along with him well and think he’s great. He’s funny, he’s wonderful. I love him … [But] when you jump on the bandwagon with the most divisive president ever, it makes sense that you’re going to be made to look terrible. So I don’t know what to believe [about his reported policies]. It’s not like I say to Bobby, ‘Let’s talk about this’ while we’re playing cards or having fun or having dinner. I’m not going to pick his brain to find out exactly which of those things are true. I just assume that none of them are? For the most part, I wish him well.”
Pratt says his skepticism about what’s reported about RFK Jr. comes from his own dealings with the media, where the actor has often been attacked for his Christian views.
“Politics, it’s a nasty business,” Pratt said. “There’s a certain level of this in Hollywood because I’ve seen in Hollywood how the person you are can be such a contrast to the person that people being are told that you are, and you can go, ‘Wow, that [perception] is pure fiction’ … And [sometimes with myself] millions of people are being fed that, and I’m not there to defend myself, nor am I going to jump in and be mired in this story. There’s this proverb, Proverbs 26:20, ‘For lack of wood, the fire will go out.’ So somebody tweeted something, it’s not real, and 300,000 people Liked it. Am I going to shine a light of 70 million people onto this?”
Maher agreed with Pratt and noted, “People do not have access to something, that we have access to — we read things about ourselves, right? Most people don’t. So you go, ‘If you’ve got this much wrong about something where I know what the truth is, what are you getting wrong about the other thing?’ You can’t really expect me to trust you after you said this and this and this. Maybe you’re dumb and lazy.”
Concurred Pratt, “It sours the notion of ‘sources close to him say…’ No they didn’t. You don’t have a source close to me who says that.”
Pratt has several upcoming projects in the works, including Prime Video’s The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, playing a Navy SEAL in Apple TV+’s Way of the Warrior Kid directed by McG and playing a detective in next year’s sci-fi film Mercy.
Leave a Reply