On November 1999, Pedro Pascal made an innocuous guest appearance on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ but that moment “saved the day” as the ‘Last of Us’ star opens up about his 15 years of “entry level” work trying to break out as an actor.
Today, it’s impossible to imagine Pedro Pascal as anything other than a beloved star and zaddy of the highest magnitude. At 48 years old, he’s enjoying a career high like he’s never seen before, but it wasn’t always this easy.
The Last of Us and The Mandalorian star has recently been cast as Reed Richards in Marvel’s highly-anticipated Fantastic Four reboot as part of the MCU, so things are continuing to look up. But the actor still remembers when one brief cameo appearance “saved the day.”
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The actor was chatting with Entertainment Tonight about his long climb to fame, saying, “My entry level lasted about 15 years.” It was during those years that he remembers nearing rock bottom financially.
“We’re talking about being able to see a doctor, getting sick, having surgery, paying my rent,” Pascal said of the things that were so often out of reach while he hustled and worked to break through.
Pascal said he was one step away from homelessness when what amounted to basically a cameo appearance in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that aired in November 1999 suddenly cropped back up and made all the difference.
“I had less than $7 in my bank account and a residual from Buffy the Vampire Slayer showed up and saved the day,” he told the outlet. He credits that paycheck with him being able to tough it out a little longer.
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After toughing it out in the trenches with small roles for nearly two decades, Pascal’s breakthrough moment came when he was cast as fan-favorite Oberyn Martell in HBO’s juggernaut hit Game of Thrones. While his fate on that show was the same, his Hollywood star continued to thrive.
While continuing to make film experiences, Pascal jumped from Game of Thrones to a leading role in Netflix’s Narcos for three seasons before landing his biggest role as Din Djarin in the Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian. He then doubled down the genre love as Joel in The Last of Us.
For the latter role, Pascal picked up a Screen Actors Guild Award, two MTV Movie & TV Awards, a People’s Choice Award, and was nominated for an Emmy. It certainly sounds like the days of timely cameo residuals to make the rent are far behind him.
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