Chris Pratt Shares How 'Fairly Complicated' Relationship with His Late Dad Affects His Roles

The actor's father Daniel died in 2014 of multiple sclerosis

Chris Pratt isn't afraid to pull from his own life for his creative process.

In an interview with SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning, the Guardians of the Galaxy actor explained why he is drawn to roles that involve complex father-son bonds, relating it back to a “fairly complicated” relationship he had with his father.

Pratt, 44, was asked if portraying another character that has a complicated relationship with his father was a coincidence or something he’d like to explore.

He said he tends to “gravitate towards” roles like Peter Quill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Garfield in The Garfield Movie. “Maybe it's not a coincidence,” he said.

“My own relationship with my dad was fairly complicated, so there's things to mine there,” he continued. Pratt’s father Daniel died of multiple sclerosis in 2014.

Related: Chris Pratt Says He Tried to 'Just Be Myself' as the Voice of Garfield and Not Emulate Bill Murray

The Parks and Recreation alum also noted that films need an emotional element to give them structure and balance out jokes.

“This happens to be hinged on Garfield feeling abandonment with his father, and so that's, yeah. That's a deep feeling I think a lot of people could relate to.” Pratt joked that this Garfield movie would be “the most dramatic interpretation of a feline.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Pratt, who has three kids, previously told British GQ in 2016 about the loss of his father. “When we face the death of a parent, you sometimes feel regret that you didn't fully embrace what you had.”

In 2015 he referred to his dad as “an old-school kind of dad,” in an interview with GQ and said that his MS diagnosis caused him to lose his interest in life.

However, Pratt’s father did express pride in his own way. “He didn't really react in any way, one way or another, but he was definitely proud. If I was on TV, he watched everything I was in. So it felt like I was able to communicate with him through doing work that was on TV."

The Garfield Movie is now in theaters.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.