It is also thanks to a good friend that Pedro Pascal is a Hollywood star today.
“What’s wrong with the people who like an old man like me?” Pedro Pascal, 48, recently asked this joking question in an interview – and flirted with his fans: “You’d better concentrate on Harry Styles!” In doing so, he probably achieved the opposite. Because this charming way of not taking himself too seriously is exactly the reason why people like him so much.
Pedro Pascal: Success is on his side
Hollywood loves the actor, who is currently breaking all streaming records with the post-apocalyptic series “The Last of Us”. A few years ago, the native Chilean would certainly not have expected that he recently even strolled down the red carpet alongside other superstars at the Met Gala.
The climb was tough
It wasn’t until he was almost 40 that he made his breakthrough. Before that, he tinkered from casting to casting for years and was only rarely cast. “I’ve died so many deaths,” he once said, looking back on that time. Then, in 2014, he landed the role of Prince Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones. After that everything goes very quickly. The series is a global hit and Pascal is now a familiar face. Other projects like “Narcos” and “The Mandalorian” follow. He’s finally getting involved in big business!
A close friendship he could always count on
Another very important person is happy about his success with him: colleague Sarah Paulson, 48. The two have known each other since the 1990s. He was then a student at NYU studying acting, and she too was trying to further her film career. Paulson succeeded in doing that in 2000 with “What Women Want”, Pedro Pascal was rejected again and again. During this time, Sarah Paulson fed her buddy and supported him financially so that he could buy groceries. “There were times when I would give him the day’s wages from my job so he could buy himself something to eat,” Sarah recalls. A real token of friendship, which also ensured that Pedro was able to continue fighting for his big dream and still made it into Hollywood. Now, “everyone wants a piece of him,” Sarah Paulson jokingly complains. Today, the two like to go to events together.
His dramatic family history
Nevertheless, Pascal is not aloof. This is certainly also due to his eventful childhood. Born in Chile in 1975, his family had to leave the country shortly after his birth. At that time, Chile was suffering under the military regime of Augusto Pinochet. Pedro’s father José was a doctor and his mother Veronica a psychologist. The parents were active against the Pinochet dictatorship, which put them in danger and ultimately forced them to flee. “They showed so much courage. Without them I would never have come to this country,” enthuses Pedro Pascal gratefully. And admits that in America he initially felt like an outsider, was often lonely and bullied at school. Instead of playing with the other children, he preferred to read classics and devoted himself to the theatre.
Today he has the world at his feet
Today he is no longer an outsider. On the contrary: there is not only a Hollywood hype about him, he is also omnipresent on the Internet. Generation Z celebrates it with countless memes, i.e. pictures with funny sayings. Sometimes he’s dancing, sometimes he’s bored chewing a sandwich, sometimes he’s tired and leaning against a post. He can do whatever he wants, people just like him. A real Hollywood fairy tale.