LOS ANGELES (AP) — Voicing the iconic lazy, orange cat in “The Garfield Movie” reminded Chris Pratt of himself when he was in his late 20s and early 30s.

“I ate a lot all the time and I was very lazy,” he told Reuters.

“I never exercised and I ate a ton of food, and it was great,” the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor said. “So, I don’t have that anymore, but I have this feeling that I’m being pampered constantly. So, depending on the period of my life we’re talking about, there are similarities in the characters, but I still don’t have to be them all at once.”

Pratt jokingly said that his connection with his character grew stronger in many ways leading up to his interview.

“I’ve turned into Garfield. Look. There’s orange all over me. I’ve been pampered all morning before this interview and now I’m going to eat a big bowl of lasagna,” he said.

Cartoonist Jim Davis’s famous 1976 comic strip is moving from the page to animation. Distributed by Sony Pictures, it hits US theaters on Friday.

The film follows a sleazy and greedy orange cat named Garfield as he is stripped of his pampered lifestyle and forced to execute a robbery for the sake of his alley cat father Vic, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

Pratt is no stranger to voicing animated characters, following his experience playing Italian plumber Mario in the box office success “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and voicing the elf Barley Lightfoot in Pixar’s “Onward.”

For the 44-year-old actor, landing the role was easy because Dindl, the renowned animation pioneer known for such major hits as “The Emperor’s New Groove,” had already envisioned that his voice would be used for Garfield, making it A film was made. Comfortable fit.

“Mark Dindal said, ‘I’ve been working on this for a couple of years, and I hear his voice as your voice. To me, it’s Chris Pratt as a cat,'” Pratt said.

Receiving the endorsement from Davis, whose comic strips have been published in more than 2,000 newspapers and magazines around the world, meant a lot to Pratt.

Pratt said, “Yes, he’s the creator of the character, and I just heard recently that he gave a sweet quote and gave me a 10 out of 10 as the voice of Garfield.”

He said, “I don’t think I realized at all how much pressure I was feeling to get the sign-off from them and so, the fact that they felt that way meant a lot to me.”

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