Chris Pratt Shares Hilarious Memory From His Pre-Fame Days As A Waiter In New Instagram Post

Actor Chris Pratt may be one of the world’s hottest stars at the moment, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten where he started. The Guardians of the Galaxy star reminisced about his pre-fame days in the restaurant business with a new Instagram post shared to his account earlier today, proving that even throughout his rise to major celebrity status, he will always remember his roots.

Chris has had a busy schedule recently promoting his upcoming film, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, which hits theaters on Friday, but still found some time to make a pit stop at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in New York on Tuesday, February 5, the Daily Mail reported.

The star shared a new photo to Instagram of him sitting at one of the booths at the restaurant, a neon sign donning the name of the eatery glowing in the window behind him. In the post, Chris reminded his 22.6 million followers that 20 years ago, before he became one of the world’s most recognizable faces, he worked as a waiter at one of the chain’s locations in Hawaii.

“Every time I go back I’m reminded of the thousands of shrimp I ate off of people’s plates on the way back to the kitchen,” the Jurassic World star remembered, giving his fans some hilarious insight into his restaurant career before reminding them to make sure to leave a hearty tip for servers whenever they visit one of the establishments.

“Also, leave some shrimp,” he added.

Chris’s nostalgic post certainly went over well with his fans, who had already given the picture nearly 1.2 million likes in just four hours of going live.

The 39-year-old actor revealed to Entertainment Weekly in 2014–shortly before the first film in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise hit theaters–that he was actually working his serving job at the Forrest Gump-inspired restaurant when he was discovered at the age of 19, when he waited on Commando actress Rae Dawn Chong.

“I was like, ‘You’re in the movies, right? I always wanted to be in the movies,'” Chris explained.

“She said, ‘You’re cute. Do you act?'” he recalled, responding by telling her to put him in a movie.

Chong gave him a role in a horror comedy called Cursed Part III, her directorial debut, and though the film was ultimately never released, Chris’s fate was sealed.

“The moment she told me she was bringing me to L.A., I knew,” he said. “I was like, ‘This is what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.'”