Chris Pratt showed up on the podcast NOT DEAD YET on April 9 expecting to be the guest, then stayed on the line and turned the questions back on cohost Ben Sasse, who has terminal cancer. What started as an interview about Pratt's background, his children and faith ended with the actor trying to put the focus on the man behind the microphone.
For most of the conversation, Sasse and political analyst Chris Stirewalt asked Pratt about how he is raising his kids and how faith shapes his acting career. Then, as the interview was about to end, Pratt remained on the call and began interviewing Sasse, telling him, "Ben, the world is gonna miss you, and I’m gonna to miss you. I’m gonna miss your voice and your intelligence," and adding, "I think that you stand for something that is just so rare that we can’t afford to lose it."
Pratt's questions went straight to the point. He asked, "God…what can I say? Will you give me the right words?" and then, "What’s broken right now in this world, and is there anything that still gives you hope?" He said, "The reason I did this [podcast] was not to talk about myself but was to actually shine a light on your legacy, Ben," because, he said, Sasse had "left the world better because of being in it and being who you are in it."
The exchange landed in a podcast built around a difficult reality. NOT DEAD YET is audio only because Sasse's cancer treatment compels him to throw up regularly, and the title itself alludes to his battle with terminal cancer. Sasse, who has been doing interviews about how his faith shapes the way he is facing his impending death, is one of three Christians in the conversation, which gave the final moments of the episode a distinctly personal tone.
That tone did not stop Sasse from answering in his usual dry style. He joked that Pratt had said "a few minutes ago" that he was trying to stay off the weed, then added that the actor had become "generous and gregarious" and that the show was going to turn into a "carefrontation" about his "new drug addiction." For Pratt, the surprise turn was a chance to pivot away from the kind of celebrity chatter that can follow him after projects like an awkward Moneyball audition that changed his career and toward the kind of role he is expected to revisit when Peter Quill returns in Guardians Of The Galaxy: Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill Set For Avengers: Secret Wars. Here, though, the bigger story was simpler: Pratt used the last minutes of the interview to give Sasse the floor, and Sasse answered with humor instead of sentiment.
In the end, the episode answered its own question. Pratt did not use the podcast to talk about himself for long. He used it to praise Sasse while Sasse is still here to hear it, and the final exchange showed a man facing terminal illness meeting admiration with a joke, not a farewell.
