Path to the Emmy Awards: Pedro Pascal
The Emmys may not be until September, but predictions for this year’s nominees have already started. And the buzz around Pedro Pascal is unparalleled, with one awards pundit saying it would be “unfathomable to imagine an Emmy acting lineup without the inclusion of the Chilean superstar.” So, as a welcome back to our Path to the Emmy Awards series, we’re giving you an in-depth look at what led up to this career moment in which Pascal is forecasted to be on the cusp of his first-ever Emmy nomination.
The actor may have become somewhat of a pop sensation in recent months — with fan pages and videos dedicated to the star popping up like daisies — but you may be curious about Pascal’s earlier years before he entered into the public eye. According to an interview with Variety, his parents had to go into hiding to avoid capture by Pinochet’s regime in their native Chile, leaving a 4-month-old Pascal and his sister with a relative. His parents eventually made their way to Venezuela, scaling the walls of the embassy there in order to claim asylum. The family relocated to Denmark and then the U.S., landing in San Antonio, Texas.
After he completed the fifth grade, Pascal’s family moved to Orange County, California. You may already be familiar with that piece of the actor’s story should you have caught the New York Post’s coverage of an incredibly viral TikTok post in which a 21-year-old shows a picture of and written dedication from Pascal in her mom’s Orange County School of the Arts yearbook. Did we mention that the internet’s obsession with the star has reached new heights?
But the path that took the newly-minted A-lister to such a celebrity status was not a short one. After graduating high school, he headed to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Pascal recalled during a chat with Sarah Paulson for Interview Magazine that he met her his first month in the city. The actor also recollected his first-ever audition — for the 1996 Richard Gere and Edward Norton-starrer Primal Fear — and how he “didn’t get it and was unemployed for about 10 years.”
Pascal did rack up some guest star roles during the time that ensued, which ranged from Law & Order to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He eventually progressed to landing recurring characters, such as attorney Nathan Landry on The Good Wife. Then came the role that put Pascal’s name on the map: Oberyn Martell in season four of Game of Thrones. He shared during an interview with Entertainment Weekly that “I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for that [opportunity].”
And it came in part thanks to the longtime friendship he’d maintained with Paulson. Pascal revealed during their Interview Magazine conversation that after taping his audition for the role, she’d told him to pass it along. “It was so f–cking brilliant,” Paulson recalled. “I sent it to Amanda [Peet], and she showed it to David [Benioff] right then. The anecdote reinforces the idea that it’s all about who you know, with a friendship between Paulson and Peet connecting Pascal’s self-tape audition for Game of Thrones to Benioff, the series’ showrunner.
But connections can’t get you too far without talent, and Pascal’s performance as Oberyn left no question about the actor’s chops. The breakout role helped lead to his memorable run as Javier Peña — a DEA agent after Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar — in Netflix’s Narcos. Sizable feature roles followed, such as his portrayal of Tovar opposite Matt Damon’s William in the 2016 epic The Great Wall. Then there was his role as Whiskey in Kingsman: The Golden Circle and as Dave York in The Equalizer 2.
And not too long after came along The Mandalorian. The 2019 Disney+ series was something Pascal calls “a huge game-changer for me.” The fact that the actor is wearing a helmet for most of his scenes as Din Djarin — aka Mando — and is still able to convey a strong emotional arc with the role speaks to his skill. Though he missed out on a nod from the Television Academy for his performances in the series’ first two seasons, his return as the character in the show’s current third season may earn him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Before getting to the other two performances that have Pascal on this year’s list of contenders, it’s important to note a few other titles that stand out on his résumé following his inaugural turn as Mando in 2019. For example, one highlight of 2020 for audiences stuck at home was getting to see — via HBO Max — the highly-anticipated sequel Wonder Woman 1984, in which Pascal played Maxwell Lord. He also reprised his role as Mando for the 2021 Mandalorian spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, and then there was his turn as a Nicolas Cage megafan in Tom Gormican’s 2022 romp The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
And now it’s time for Pascal’s two remaining Emmy-contending performances from this year. Firstly, there’s his starring role in the king of all video game-turned-series adaptations, HBO’s The Last of Us. Thanks to Pascal’s work opposite his young co-lead Bella Ramsey, the show quickly became one of the network’s most-watched series of 2023. As Joel, a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world — in which zombie-like creatures come out of a fungal pandemic and proceed to ransack civilization — Pascal gives a performance that RogertEbert.com calls “a nuanced turn” that “balances trauma, cynicism, and the character’s emerging hope in a way that feels true.”
Such a dramatic feat might also earn Pascal a nod for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, but let’s not forget his potential for an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination thanks to his work hosting Saturday Night Live on February 4. He’s been called “the clear standout of all hosts in the [show’s] 48th season so far,” and from his portrayal of an Italian waiter to the title character in a dystopian Mario Kart series adaptation, the actor’s headlining of the sketch show could very well earn him an Emmy nomination.
Coming off years of grinding as an actor, it doesn’t seem like Pascal plans on taking any breaks now that he’s reached a newfound level of success in his career. Up next, he’s slated to appear in Nadia Conners’ comedy feature The Uninvited and a dramatic film entitled Freaky Tales from Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. And come July 12, you can find out if one of the most buzzed-about actors in Hollywood will receive a critical milestone marker in his career with a place on this year’s list of Emmy nominees.
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