50 Fun Facts About Pedro Pascal

Pedro Pascal was born in which city?

Santiago was home for less than a year: his parents opposed the Pinochet dictatorship and fled Chile with him while he was still a baby.

What was the profession of Pascal's mother, Verónica?

Child psychologist Verónica Pascal Ureta died early in his career, and he took her surname as his stage name in tribute.

Pascal's father worked in which medical specialty?

Reproductive endocrinology is fertility medicine: his father returned to Chile in 1995 after being accused of secretly switching patients' embryos at the fertility clinic he helped run.

Through his mother's family, Pascal is related to which Chilean president?

Salvador Allende was overthrown two years before Pascal was born. His nephew Andrés Pascal Allende, a relative of Pascal's mother, led the Revolutionary Left Movement, and the new regime listed Pascal's parents as enemies.

Pascal's parents escaped Pinochet's Chile by taking refuge in which embassy?

The Venezuelan embassy took them in after they went into hiding, left baby Pedro and his sister with an aunt, and climbed its wall during a guards' shift change.

As a boy in Texas, before acting took over, Pascal was a competitive athlete in which sport?

Swimming came first: Pascal swam competitively during his Texas childhood, then gave it up after the family moved to California and drama took over.

Pascal's family received political asylum in which European country?

Denmark granted the family asylum when Pascal was a baby, but it proved a stopover: they soon moved on to the United States, where he grew up.

In which Texas city was Pascal raised before moving to California?

San Antonio is where the family settled after asylum in Europe; his father took him to Spurs basketball games on weeknights if his homework was done.

Pascal moved at eleven from Texas to which California county?

Orange County became home at eleven: he went to middle school in Corona del Mar, then to high school in Los Alamitos so that he could attend the Orange County School of the Arts.

Which actor plays Lucius, the gladiator who faces Pascal's General Acacius in Gladiator II?

Paul Mescal plays Lucius, son of the first film's hero Maximus, who is forced into the Colosseum after Pascal's general conquers his home.

Pascal graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts in 1997, part of which institution?

New York University followed a turning point in his last year of school, when a spare ticket to the play Angels in America convinced him that acting could be his life.

Before he took his mother's surname, Pascal was credited under which paternal surname?

Balmaceda was on his early credits; he says Americans struggled to pronounce it, and for a while he even swapped Pedro for Alexander in the hope of winning more roles.

Which actress friend gave Pascal her per diem money during his lean years?

Sarah Paulson later passed his Game of Thrones audition tape to her best friend Amanda Peet, who is married to the show's co-creator David Benioff.

A residual check from which TV show rescued Pascal when he had under $7 in the bank?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer paid him for a 1999 episode in which his lost freshman Eddie is grabbed by vampires; he says that cheque is the reason he did not give up acting.

Who plays Sue Storm opposite Pascal's Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four: First Steps?

Vanessa Kirby plays Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman; with Pascal's Reed she must defend a retro-futuristic 1960s Earth from Galactus, a space god who plans to devour the planet.

Who created The Mandalorian, the Star Wars series in which Pascal plays the title bounty hunter?

Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man and The Lion King, created the series for the launch of Disney+ and went on to produce its spin-offs The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka.

In Ari Aster's Eddington, Pascal's small-town mayor is challenged by a sheriff played by which actor?

Joaquin Phoenix plays Sheriff Joe Cross, whose standoff with Pascal's Mayor Ted Garcia in May 2020 turns into a bid for the mayor's job.

Pascal's Mandalorian wears armour forged from which nearly indestructible metal?

Beskar shrugs off blaster bolts; in the third episode Din Djarin has new armour forged from the bars he is paid for handing over the Child, then goes back to rescue it.

Which actor played Pablo Escobar opposite Pascal in the first two seasons of Narcos?

Wagner Moura, a Brazilian whose first language is Portuguese, learned Spanish for the role and put on about 40 pounds to play the Colombian cocaine boss.

Pascal plays a wealthy suitor competing with Chris Evans for Dakota Johnson's matchmaker in which film?

Materialists grew out of writer-director Celine Song's own six months working as a matchmaker; Pascal's Harry is the rich 'perfect match' set against a struggling-actor ex.

Who kills Oberyn Martell in a Game of Thrones trial by combat?

The Mountain, Gregor Clegane, crushes Oberyn's skull after the prince, who is winning the duel, pauses to demand a confession for his sister's murder.

What is the nickname of Oberyn Martell, Pascal's Game of Thrones character?

The Red Viper owes the name to rumours that he fights with poisoned weapons; his eight bastard daughters are known in turn as the Sand Snakes.

Oberyn Martell comes from which desert kingdom of Westeros?

Dorne is the far-southern realm whose prince, Oberyn, arrives in King's Landing bent on revenge for the murder of his sister Elia.

In Narcos, Pascal's Javier Peña works for which US agency?

The DEA employed the real Javier Peña, who helped hunt Pablo Escobar in Colombia and later worked as a consultant on the series.

In the third season of Narcos, Pascal's Javier Peña goes after which cartel?

The Cali cartel had been Escobar's rival through the first two seasons; after his death it becomes the new target, with Pascal's Peña leading the pursuit.

Boyd Holbrook, whose exit from Narcos made Pascal the lead, played which agent in the series?

Steve Murphy is Peña's partner through the hunt for Escobar and leaves once it ends; the real Murphy and the real Peña appear in a cameo in the season two finale.

Who directed The Great Wall (2016), in which Pascal played mercenary Pero Tovar?

Zhang Yimou, who staged the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, cast Pascal and Matt Damon as mercenaries who come hunting gunpowder and end up defending the wall from monsters.

In Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Pascal's Statesman agent uses which codename?

Whiskey looks like an ally from Statesman, the American agency whose agents are code-named after drinks, but he is unmasked as a villain in the final act.

Pascal played villain Dave York opposite which star in The Equalizer 2?

Denzel Washington returns as vigilante Robert McCall, who discovers that Dave York, his trusted former partner, is behind the murder of his best friend.

In Prospect (2018), Pascal's character Ezra hunts for resources where?

An alien moon covered in toxic forest is where Ezra digs for gems; a teenage girl whose father dies in a shootout with his partner takes him prisoner, then becomes his ally.

Who directed If Beale Street Could Talk, in which Pascal cameoed as Pietro Alvarez?

Barry Jenkins made it as his follow-up to Moonlight; adapted from James Baldwin's novel, it follows a pregnant woman fighting to free her fiancé, arrested for a crime he did not commit.

Pascal made his Broadway debut in 2019 playing which King Lear character?

Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, lies his honest brother Edgar into exile and then hands his own father over to be blinded.

Which actress played the title role in Pascal's Broadway King Lear?

Glenda Jackson came back to acting after a 25-year absence, most of it spent as a Member of Parliament, playing Lear in London in 2016 and then on Broadway.

Which Western star did Pascal channel as the Mandalorian, asking himself what that actor would do?

Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name was the model: the show's creator sent Pascal to Sergio Leone's westerns and Kurosawa's samurai films, and on set he would ask, 'What would Clint do?'

What is the real name of the child Pascal's Mandalorian protects, nicknamed Baby Yoda by fans?

Grogu was credited only as 'the Child' until season two, when the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano learned his name through the Force, along with his past at the Jedi Temple.

A double who wears the armour of Pascal's Mandalorian is the grandson of which Western star?

John Wayne's grandson Brendan Wayne shares the suit with stuntman Lateef Crowder; they played Mando on set for some scenes while Pascal dubbed the dialogue months later.

What does Pascal's character Catfish do in the heist film Triple Frontier?

Helicopter pilot Catfish warns that the stolen millions are too heavy to clear the Andes; the overloaded aircraft crashes and the crew must haul the cash on by mule.

Which actor friend did Pascal meet in a 2005 off-Broadway production?

Oscar Isaac met him in the play Beauty of the Father; the two became lifelong friends, bonding over how easily Latino actors were pigeonholed in stereotyped roles.

Pascal played which character in Wonder Woman 1984?

Maxwell Lord is a failing oil tycoon and TV pitchman who wishes to become the wish-granting Dreamstone itself, taking whatever he wants from everyone whose wish he grants.

Pascal co-starred with whom in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent?

Nicolas Cage plays a broke version of himself who accepts $1 million to attend the birthday of Pascal's billionaire superfan Javi, then is recruited by the CIA to spy on him.

A TikTok meme of Pascal grinning in a car is set to 'Make Your Own Kind of Music' by which singer?

Mama Cass Elliot's 1969 single stalled at number 36 in the US, then found new life decades later through the TV series Lost and through this meme, cut from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

Who directed The Bubble, the pandemic satire featuring Pascal as Dieter Bravo?

Judd Apatow shot it during the pandemic: actors stuck in a hotel bubble try to finish a sequel about flying dinosaurs, with Pascal's Dieter Bravo as the indifferent veteran star among them.

In The Last of Us, Pascal's Joel survives a pandemic caused by which kind of organism?

A fungus is the culprit: a mutated Cordyceps that takes over its human hosts, turns them into the violent Infected and brings society down.

Who plays Ellie opposite Pascal's Joel in The Last of Us?

Bella Ramsey plays Ellie, the immune teenager Joel is hired to smuggle across a ruined America; Ramsey also came from Game of Thrones, joining two seasons after Pascal's prince died.

Who was the musical guest when Pascal hosted Saturday Night Live in February 2023?

Coldplay were the guests, and singer Chris Martin dedicated 'Fix You' to Pascal and his late mother: 'This one's for Pedro and Veronica.'

Who directed Strange Way of Life, the 2023 short starring Pascal and Ethan Hawke?

Pedro Almodóvar's short western casts Pascal and Hawke as former hired guns, once lovers, who meet again after 25 years when one of them has become a sheriff.

Pascal's 2023 Emmy narration nomination was for a nature series about which region?

Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World, shown on CNN, earned Pascal the nomination, but the Emmy went to another narrator: Barack Obama.

In The Wild Robot, Pascal voices Fink, which kind of animal?

Fink the fox first tries to eat the goose egg that the robot Roz is guarding, then helps her raise the gosling, Brightbill, in time for his first migration.

What accent did Pascal want to give Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four: First Steps?

Mid-Atlantic speech suited the film's 1960s setting and he took to it with a dialect coach, but the studio kept pulling him back: 'Talk more like yourself.'

Pascal said he thought about the 'brilliance' of which animal when playing Reed Richards?

Octopus was his secret image for Reed: 'his body may stretch, but this is a brain character,' he said, so he kept the animal in his subconscious rather than copying how it moves.