Screening Series: ‘Lego Movie’ actor Chris Pratt on the freedom of the vocal booth

Chris Pratt has done his share of gregarious goofing on the TV series “Parks and Recreation,” flexed a chiseled physique in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and shown some dramatic chops in “Moneyball.” In other words, he’s not exactly a shy guy.

But if you really want him to cut loose, put him in the vocal booth, as co-writers and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller did for the animated hit “The Lego Movie.”

In this clip from a recent installment of the Envelope Screening Series, Pratt talks about his uninhibited work in the film.

“I felt the least amount of self-consciousness as I’ve ever felt doing any role,” Pratt says of voicing “Lego” protagonist Emmet. “Not so much because of the way I sounded, but because I wasn’t concerned at all about the way I looked.”

There’s “a big distinction between doing anything on film and television and doing voice-over,” he adds. “I would show up [to ‘Lego’] barefoot, wearing some shorts and a schlubby T-shirt, and I hadn’t shaved and had ranch dressing on my shirt, and I’m pouring sweat and I don’t care. It was nice. … You can be big and you can make crazy facial expressions that your vanity would never allow you to do on camera. So I felt very loose.”

Asked if he tapped into his inner child, Pratt replies, “I think so, yeah. My 35-year-old self is the equivalent of the average 8-year-old-self, so I just tapped into my own self.”

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