Of Course the Worst Chris in Hollywood Is an RFK Jr. Defender

“I really got along with him well and think he’s great," Chris Pratt told Bill Maher. "He’s funny, he’s wonderful. I love him.” Maybe brainworms run in the (extended) family.

By Audra Heinrichs | August 19, 2025 | 12:09pm

Photos: Getty Images Celebrities Misc. Goss

Of Course the Worst Chris in Hollywood Is an RFK Jr. Defender

With every passing day, I mourn the Chris Pratt of yesteryear—the one who was married to Anna Faris, was always inexplicably sweaty, and who kept his politics and love for Jesus to himself. Unfortunately, those days have long ended, and we’re all regularly subjected to the actor’s shitty opinions. The latest? He’s a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defender.

On the latest episode of Bill Maher’s podcast, Club Random, Pratt was asked what it’s like being cousins by marriage with Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Pratt’s wife is Katherine Schwarzenegger, whose mother is Maria Shriver, and whose first cousin is RFK Jr.) According to Pratt, he and the casual anti-Semite, storied anti-vaccine activist, and serial philanderer have only hung out on “a number of occasions” in a “strictly dinner kind of vibe.” But, Pratt clarified, he is a fan.

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“I really got along with him well and think he’s great,” Pratt told Maher. “He’s funny, he’s wonderful. I love him.” Funny? Wonderful? These are not the adjectives that first come to mind when talking about someone who just pulled $500 million in funding for critical vaccine development. But if you asked Pratt, the real problem about Kennedy isn’t his brainworm, it’s the public’s inaccurate perception of him.

“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.’” Huh.

Pratt continued: “The person that you are can be in stark contrast with the person your enemy is saying you are. 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.” Sorry, but Pratt’s use of “your enemy” and “divisive” in a sentence about Kennedy and his connection to Trump is doing nothing to support his point.

Worse yet, Pratt backtracked, explaining he’s never actually discussed politics with Kennedy and, in fact, doesn’t know what the hell he really stands for.

“I don’t know what to believe [about Kennedy],” Pratt explained. “It’s not like I say to [him], ‘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.” Thanks to the worm, there’s probably not much left to pick anyway. But I digress.

How nice that Pratt gets to exist in a reality where he can assume none of the very real and exceedingly disturbing stories about Kennedy—from firing every member of an independent panel important to vaccine policy and replacing them with anti-vaxxers to hiking Camelback Mountain in jeans—are just fake news. Need more evidence? Pratt still thinks Kennedy cares about healthy food production. The same day the interview with Maher went live, a new draft of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative dropped. And guess what? It doesn’t include targeting ultra-processed foods or pesticides.

“There’s certain things [that Kennedy] 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.”

Personally, I think the most reasonable outcome is for everyone associated with the Trump administration to be [redacted], but OK!

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