Pedro Pascal wasn’t going to sit around and wait for an invitation to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. Instead, “The Last of Us” star reached out to a team of Grammy-winning superstars.
“I wanted to be involved in some way, and I channeled that through the people I work with, literally in a volunteer capacity, offering coffee when needed,” Pascal said in the latest issue of Fantastic Man magazine. “In terms of celebration and synchronized expression, there is no one better than Benito at the moment. Not only am I obsessed with his music, it inspires me.”
However, there was no immediate response from Pascal. After closing Tony Gilroy’s new album Behemoth, Pascal said: “I was lamenting that I wasn’t getting any replies, and I emailed someone a selfie with my tongue sticking out. I was like, ‘This is really me.'” Within 25 minutes, they called me back and said, ‘We want you to come to the show.’ ”
His only instruction was to wear beige on the big day. “We were watching the game in the stands and someone pulled me out of my seat and took me backstage, and there was Cardi B, Young Miko, Karol G and Jessica Alba,” Pascal recalled. “They checked the wardrobe and said to me, ‘OK, the vibe is that you’re dancing.’ I started noticing right before it started and I was like, ‘It’s a casita.’ I’m really an idiot. Oh, my God, I’m going to a casita,” he said as he was marched out into the field. I guess that’s why I looked like a deer caught in headlights. ”
Ethan James Green / Fantastic Man
In the same interview, Pascal also talked about experiencing fame at an older age than other colleagues. “I think there are two ways to look at this,” said Pascal, who turned 51 on April 2. “The universal feeling of impostor syndrome can be experienced by all of us when people are unkind to us, especially when getting what we want is somehow unpleasant. And the softer side of it, as old as I feel, and as stupid as some, is, ‘What’s a 50-year-old guy doing dancing at La Casita?'” – I’m very grateful that I was a fully developed character before I had any major exposure. I was already baked out of the oven. I was 38 years old when I got the role of Oberyn Martell[on Game of Thrones].
Ethan James Green / Fantastic Man
He spoke of numerous waiter and bartending jobs in New York City. “I was paid paycheck to paycheck, but my work in the theater became somewhat stable over the years,” Pascal said. “So I always felt like if there was an episode of ‘Law & Order’ or something, it would be this huge score. I was chipping away. I had a lot of help from my sister and friends over the years.”
Pascal was asked about his signature mustache. “I never had the courage to grow a beard before, because I felt that my beard was very weak. Even now, I cannot grow a proper beard,” he said. “It was for the role of Oberyn Martell that I got extra help with my beard. Then ‘Narcos’ came along and I felt the mustache was perfect for this era. So now I’m clinging a little to the vanity of having my very weak patchy beard give my face some definition. But if the role calls for it, all that can go away.”
Ethan James Green / Fantastic Man
On a more serious note, Pascal explained why he’s so outspoken about progressive politics. “I think the harder path is to remain silent,” the actor said. “It would be too hard for me to live with myself. That’s how I was raised: courtesy and compassion. The idea of vulnerable people like this being scapegoated and terrorized is indescribably painful.”
Pascal’s full interview can be found at fantasyman.com.
