Pedro Pascal is currently one of the most popular actors in Hollywood thanks to his most recent projects in different genres and both on TV and the big screen, but how did he become the hottest star in the industry? All eyes have been on Pedro Pascal since he joined Disney+’s Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian as the title character, but he’s far from being a newcomer and has been making his way through Hollywood for years.
José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1975, but didn’t live there for long, as his parents were supporters of Salvador Allende and were involved in the opposition movement against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, so nine months after he was born, his family was granted political asylum in Denmark. The family then moved to California and later Texas, and Pascal got involved in competitive swimming, but he left it after getting into drama class and studied acting at the Orange County School of the Arts and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. During his time at NYU, his father got involved in a scandal with the fertility clinic he ran, so his father, mother, and two youngest siblings returned to Chile, where his mother died shortly after. Pascal then took his mother’s surname professionally to honor her and because his paternal last name proved to be too hard to pronounce for most people.
Pascal stayed in New York with his sister, and he began to pursue an acting career, getting some theater roles and some one-offs in popular TV shows, but his big break came many, many years later when he was cast as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones. With so many recent hits in his career, it’s easy to forget that Pascal worked very hard to get where he is right now and become one of the most popular and beloved actors of his generation, and here’s the path he went through.
The Early Days Of Pedro Pascal’s Career
Pedro Pascal’s first roles were on TV in the late 1990s, though these were minor roles in (mostly) popular TV shows. First, he played Gregor New in one episode of Good vs. Evil, followed by a voice role in Downton, Greg in the anthology series Undressed, and Eddie in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the episode “The Freshman”. After that came one-off roles in the shows Touched by an Angel, NYPD Blue, Law & Order: Criminal Intent (twice, in different roles), Without a Trace, Law & Oder, and the TV movie Earth vs. the Spider. He later played Nathan Landry in six episodes of The Good Wife, after which he appeared in a lot more TV shows still in minor roles, most notably Nurse Jackie, Brothers & Sisters, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Charlie’s Angels, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Nikita, Homeland, and The Mentalist.
On the movie side of his career, Pascal’s debut was in the movie Sisters, directed and written by Julia Solomonoff, followed by I Am That Girl, The Adjustment Bureau, and Sweet Little Lies. Pascal didn’t give up even if all he got were minor roles, which weren’t bad at all as they helped make his name known in the industry, and it’s that perseverance and hard work that led to bigger projects, with his big break arriving in 2014 in one of the biggest and most popular TV shows of the decade: Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones & Pedro Pascal’s Early Promise
Game of Thrones began its run in 2011 and came to an end in 2019 after eight seasons and a lot of controversies, and in 2014, Pedro Pascal was cast as Oberyn Martell a.k.a. the Red Viper, debuting in season 4’s episode “Two Swords”. Pascal played Oberyn in seven episodes, his final appearance being in season 4's “The Mountain and the Viper”, but it was enough for critics and viewers to turn their attention to him. Suddenly, he was billed as “Pedro Pascal from Game of Thrones”, which opened many doors for him, such as a role in the 2017 movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle, where he played Jack Daniels/Agent Whiskey.
Pascal’s personality, charisma, and “cool factor” played in his favor following his time in Game of Thrones, and successfully avoided fallout from less notable works like the comedy-horror Bloodsucking Bastards and the monster film The Great Wall, while other Game of Thrones actors have been heavily criticized for even the slightest missteps. Being in only seven episodes also helped him maintain his image and move forward with his career as it was easier to escape the scrutiny that comes with being part of a huge TV show as was Game of Thrones.
Narcos To The Power Of The Mandalorian’s Helmet
In 2015, Pedro Pascal got his next big role in Netflix’s Narcos, where he played Javier Peña. Narcos told the story of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in its first two seasons, with the third covering the aftermath of his fall and the efforts of the DEA to shut down the infamous Cali Cartel. Pascal played the DEA agent who investigated Escobar and the Medellín Cartel, and while his involvement in the events of season 3 is fictional, his character was the lead in that season. Of course, Narcos helped make his name known to a different audience than the one of Game of Thrones while also showing his range as Javier Peña and Oberyn Martell are very different characters. On the big screen, he appeared in the movies Prospect, The Equalizer 2, and If Beale Street Could Talk.
Following Narcos, Pascal got an even bigger role, the one that boosted his career and made him a widely-known name, even among those not into the Star Wars universe: The Mandalorian. Pascal was cast as the title character, whose name is Din Djarin, and while he has spent most of his on-screen time wearing a helmet, it only added to his “cool factor” and mythology. Even with a helmet covering his entire face, Pascal delivered a performance full of action and heart, earning the praise of critics and winning over the audience’s hearts and approval, especially those of Star Wars fans.
Pedro Pascal Ruled Christmas 2020
The Mandalorian season 2 began in October 2020 and came to an end in December, but if that wasn’t enough, two other projects starring Pedro Pascal were released around the same time: Wonder Woman 1984 and We Can Be Heroes. After many delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wonder Woman 1984 was released on December 25 in both theaters and streaming thanks to HBO Max, so the audience got to see Pascal play Maxwell Lord, a charismatic businessman who acquires the Dreamstone in hopes to use its power to save his bankrupt company. Interestingly, Pascal was cast in the pilot for a Wonder Woman TV adaptation in 2011, but the show was never picked up – cut to 2019, and Pascal is playing the antagonist in a Wonder Woman movie.
Then came We Can Be Heroes, directed by Robert Rodriguez and a standalone sequel to his 2005 fantasy movie The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D. In it, Pascal played Marcus Moreno, a retired superhero who is forced to rejoin his team to save the world from an alien invasion, but they are all captured, prompting their children to team-up and save them. We Can Be Heroes was also released on December 25, and along with the hype of The Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal ended up ruling Christmas 2020. Pascal’s career is far from over, and it feels like he’s only getting started, and along with a third season of The Mandalorian, he’s set to appear in the action-comedy movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent alongside Nicolas Cage and will play Joel Miller in HBO’s adaptation of the video game The Last of Us. With some highly anticipated projects lined up and whatever comes along the way, Pedro Pascal will continue being one of the hottest, coolest, and most beloved actors in the industry.