The other night, Pedro Pascal won the prize for Best Actor at the SAG-AFTRA Awards, an awards show dedicated entirely to actors. He took the award home for playing zombie apolcaypse survivor Joel on HBO's drama The Last of Us. The other nominees were Billy Crudup from The Morning Show, and Kieran Culkin, Brian Cox and Matthew Macfadyen, all from Succession. Since Culkin had won Best Actor awards over Pascal at both the Emmys and the Golden Globes, Pascal clearly did not think he was going to win the award. You can see the surprise on his face:
“This is wrong for so many reasons,” Pascal said in his speech. “I’m a little drunk. I thought I could get drunk. I’m making a fool of myself but thank you so much for this! I’ve been in the union since 1999 so this is an incredible f***ing honor. To the nominees, all of you, I can’t remember any of your names right now.”
A teary Pascal did manage to thank a few people before he got on with his night. “I’m going to have a panic attack and I’m going to leave,” he said. The camera cut to Margot Robbie in the audience saying the words, "I love him." After a charming speech like that, it's hard to disagree with her. Pascal continues his ascendency to the top tier of Hollywood talent. If the award for The Last of Us didn't convince you, then maybe his role in Ridley Scott's upcoming Gladiator sequel and his casting as Mister Fantastic in Marvel's Fantastic Four movie will. Pascal seems unstoppable and I'm okay with that.
Pedro Pascal: Filming on The Last of Us season 2 is "going amazing"
Afterwards, Pascal talked to Deadline about progress on the second season of The Last of Us. Keep in mind that he is, by his own admission, a little drunk at this point. “Filming is going amazing,” he said. “It’s sort of awe-inspiring the kind of focus and dedication that everyone has going into Season 2.”
The Last of Us is based on the video game of the same name by Naughty Dog. Pascal singled out his costar Bella Ramsey (Ellie) and showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for praise. “It’s incredible to be back home with them and creatively and everybody, our entire crew, they’re working harder than I could even imagine, even harder than our first season which is close to impossible. It’s pretty inspiring and unbelievable and this is because of them,” he said. “Stepping into those boots again, it feels strangely brand new. I’ve never done anything like this before that has such original authorship before I ever got to it.”
"And then to be given the space to author what would I have to give and to be under Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and alongside Bella Ramsey has been really the whole reason it works for me. I guess I’m learning something new every day, and I’ll be thinking about it probably for the rest of my life."
The second season of The Last of Us won't premiere on HBO and Max until sometime in 2025.
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