“Super Mario Bros.” star Chris Pratt was feeling the buzz earlier this week, but not the Hollywood kind he’s used to.
In an Instagram video posted Wednesday the “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor shared that he got stung by a bee after aggravating a hive near his home. He said he was inspired by a viral Texas beekeeper to take matters into his own hands.
“She’s so cool and brave, and she goes in front of these hives of bees and says, ‘They’re very calm today. I’m going to remove the bee,'” he said. “So it’s built up this false sense of security in me. To whereas I said, ‘I think I can control bees too.'”
In her popular TikTok and Instagram videos, Texas beekeeper Erika Thompson rescues bees from unfit environments by casually scooping up dozens of them in her bare hands and relocating their hive.
Thompson, who often forgoes the bulky beekeeper gear in her videos, touts a following of more than 11 million followers on TikTok and 993,000 on Instagram.
She has more than a decade of bee-removal experience and claims to be familiar with bee behavior. (She was also part of a beekeeper feud that went viral last year.)
Pratt, on the other hand, isn’t exactly known for his beekeeping skills.
“I just stared at these bees, and then one of them [came] out and it stung me in the eyeball,” he said, taking off his sunglasses to reveal his swollen eye. “So anyways, f— that bee lady.”
Pratt didn’t name Thompson in the video, but directly tagged her in his caption. Like a bee to honey, Thompson responded to Pratt’s ire.
“Wait—so now you’re going to be a plumber and a beekeeper @prattprattpratt?!,” she wrote in the comments.
“If you leave saving the bees to me and other professionals, you can focus on saving the Princess, Mario,” she added, referring to Pratt’s upcoming role in “Super Mario Bros.”
Thompson has been documenting her beekeeping work on TikTok since 2020. Her account features bee removals from compost bins, toilets and trees at singer Jason Derulo’s house.
“I just really love bees, and as a professional beekeeper, I spend most of my time around bees. So I’ve learned how to handle them, hold them and help them if they need me,” she said in a January TikTok. “For me, having bees around me all the time is one of my favorite things about being a beekeeper.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
