This might rank as one of the best celebrity apologies of all time.
After Chris Pratt shared a video in which he requested people listen with high volume instead of reading subtitles, many criticized the Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 star for not being sensitive to those with hearing disabilities. Shortly after Pratt issued a new video on Instagram apologizing for his mistake. This time, however, he used sign language to get the message across.
He also included a lengthy and heartfelt caption explaining the situation.
"Instagram does this thing where it mutes all the videos it shows and forces you to turn on the volume in order to hear them. (maybe because most people are watching those videos at work when they should be working and don't want to get caught. I know that's when I do it.) So when I made a video recently with subtitles, and requested that people turn up the volume and not just 'read the subtitles' it was so people wouldn't scroll past the video on mute, thus watching and digesting the information in the video," he wrote.
"HOWEVER, I realize now doing so was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles. More than 38 million Americans live with some sort of hearing disability. So I want to apologize.
"I have people in my life who are hearing-impaired, and the last thing in the world I would want to do is offend them or anybody who suffers from hearing loss or any other disability. So truly from the bottom of my heart I apologize. Thanks for pointing this out to me. In the future I'll try to be a little less ignorant about it."
For all the people who might think his apology is disingenuous, he has a message for that, too.
"Now... I know some of you are going to say, 'Hey! Chris only apologized because his publicist made him!' Well. That is not the case. As always I control my social media. Nobody else. And I am doing this because I'm actually really sorry. Apologies are powerful. I don't dole them out Willy-Nilly. This is one of those moments where I screwed up and here's me begging your pardon. I hope you accept my apology."
The Passengers actor then used his apology to serve as an opportunity to pitch an idea to Instagram: closed captioning for the hearing impaired.
"And on that note. Why doesn't Instagram have some kind of technology to automatically add subtitles to its videos? Or at least the option. I did a little exploring and it seems lacking in that area. Shouldn't there be an option for closed captioning or something?" he asked. "I've made them lord knows how much money with my videos and pictures. Essentially sharing myself for free. I know they profit. So... GET ON IT INSTAGRAM!!! Put closed captioning on your app. #CCinstaNow"
Leave it to Pratt to turn lemons into the sweetest lemonade.