Way back when Forrest Gump was still relevant, a chain of tourist trap restaurants inspired by the schmaltzy film sprang up out of nowhere. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which bizarrely still exists today, serves mediocre seafood at tourist areas around the world.
It was the late 1990’s and a young, struggling actor was living out of his van working days at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company far away from Hollywood in Maui. Lucky for him, the daughter of a Hollywood legend, in town to direct a film was dining at the tourist trap. It was an unlikely place to get ‘discovered’. In fact, it sounded like something out of a cheesy Hallmark Channel film, but it was true.
The daughter of the legend was Rae Dawn Chong. The struggling actor was Chris Pratt. It sounded like something out of the Golden age of Hollywood, but it took place in the 1990’s. It would take the better part of a decade, but eventually Chris Pratt would become one of the biggest stars in the world.
