Man of Style Chris Pratt

Producers may have considered him an unlikely leading man earlier in his film career, but watch Pratt in this month’s blockbuster Western, The Magnificent Seven, matching co-star Denzel Washington line for line, and it’s clear that there’s now no one more likely than this 37-year-old charmer.

- Rachel Reilich

Outside the historic Irving Thalberg Building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, Calif., a Technicolor rainbow—94 feet tall and wrought from solid steel—arcs into the sky. In a nondescript corner office in that same building, the gold at the end of that rainbow, Chris Pratt, takes a seat, the chair he chooses instantly dwarfed by his rugged 6'2" frame. In a sky blue Levi’s button-down, faded Wrangler jeans, and scuffed tan Ariat boots, the actor looks every inch the cowboy, which is fitting, since he plays the leading role of wisecracking gunslinger Josh Farraday in The Magnificent Seven. Is this art imitating life? Pratt waves off the notion. “These are I’m-not-really-a-cowboy cowboy boots,” he says, laughing gamely. “I play one in a movie.” But that’s not all he can do. With an eagerly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy sequel on the horizon, as well as Passengers, an interstellar romance with Jennifer Lawrence, Pratt continues to prove he’s equally at home in space as he is on the range. Add to that his just-announced star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? It’s official. Chris Pratt is no mere movie star. He’s a celestial happening.

Your role in The Magnificent Seven required you to shoot a gun, ride a horse, and pull off a wide-brim Stetson hat. Do you feel like a legitimate cowboy now?

Man, that’s how I thought I would feel. But after seeing legitimate cowboys? [Laughs] For all the skills I gained on this movie, I also realized what real cowboys can do.

What attracted you to the role?