It’s shaping up to be a pretty huge month for Pedro Pascal. This weekend we’ll get to see the season finale of his new breakout HBO show The Last of Us, where he stars as hardened apocalypse survivor Joel. But we won’t even have time to miss Pascal after the season ends, because his other big television show, The Mandalorian, is just beginning its highly-anticipated third season on Disney+.
This week Pascal appeared on Hot Ones, an acting interview show hosted by Sean Evans where guests answer questions while eating progressively spicier chicken wings. Pascal thought he might be the first person to conquer the challenge without breaking a sweat, but…well, you can watch for yourself:
Pedro Pascal talks about working with the scene-stealing Baby Yoda
This was probably one of the funnest interviews I’ve seen with Pascal, and Evans asked great questions. Of course, they had to talk about Pascal playing Joel and Mando. A particular highlight was when Pascal was asked what it’s like to act opposite Grogu, aka Baby Yoda.
“There’s two ,” Pascal said. “One is remote, and you can carry him around, and his head will move around, ears, turn toward you as you’re holding him and stuff like that, and kind of be alive. And then, for a good close-up, he’s connected to you know… The Pentagon. It’s like these wires. That’s where you get the really detailed eyebrow movements and eyeballs kind of moving around and he’s a very cooperative and fulfilling scene partner, acting partner. It’s pretty crazy.”
The fidelity of the Baby Yoda puppets means that Pascal really doesn’t have to imagine what Grogu is doing; it’s pretty easy for him to pretend that little cutie is real.
One particular scene that a lot of people have complimented Pascal on is the end of The Mandalorian season 2, where he says goodbye to Grogu. It all just felt so real! “ getting praise for ‘Oh my gosh, you have such subtle emotion and you’re dealing with a puppet. And I’m like….’ This puppet is making me cry,'” Pascal recalled, before busting out a pretty good Grogu impression, complete with cute sounds and hand movements. “I’m like ‘chill, you’re stealing it. It’s like the one time I have my helmet off…let me have the scene, bro,'” he laughed.
Pedro Pascal fell asleep while having his head crushed on Game of Thrones
Pascal was also asked about playing Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones, specifically the scene where he fights Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane and has his eyes gouged out and head crushed. The scene was less exciting to film than it was to watch:
"I got my head crushed in. It was the best part of the day. It was so hot when we were shooting that scene…you know, [Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is] over me and he puts his thumbs into my eyes, and they’ve got piping, tubing through his body into his sleeves into his forearms to his thumbs, and just like pumping this cool blood. And, so gentle, like the gentlest guy ever, [I] felt no pressure at all, you know? And he was so hyper aware of it, I couldn’t even feel his weight on me as he like, you know, basically straddled me."
Pascal recalled how various pieces of gooey flesh were piled onto his face to simulate the ruin of his head. Again, more relaxing than it looked. “I was dead asleep, because it was like so hot, and this stuff was so cooling to the touch,” Pascal said. “And you had to be really, really still, and that was the most relaxing…and knowing also that we had gotten to the end of this sort of four day fight that we were shooting out there, it was very cathartic and I went into the deepest sleep I realize now because I’m not a very good sleeper, I need to be laid out with piece of flesh , gelatinous, cool to the touch…face meat, and pooling blood, and maybe I’ll get a good fuckin’ night’s sleep.”
You can see Pascal in The Last of Us season finale this Sunday on HBO and HBO Max, as well as in new episodes of The Mandalorian Wednesdays on Disney+.
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h/t The A.V. Club