Bella Ramsey would like their fellow actor and friend Pedro Pascal to be admired for his talents rather than just his physical attributes.
Pascal’s performances in HBO’s “The Last of Us,” along with Disney’s “The Mandalorian” and its spinoff, “The Book of Boba Fett,” have catapulted him into superstardom.
A side effect of that newfound fame, however, has been internet fetishization, with many fans dubbing the actor a “daddy,” or a sexy older man.
In an interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday, Ramsey was asked about their “Last of Us” co-star’s “daddy” status ― at which point they implied it might be time for the world to move on.
“I very much played into it at the beginning, but now I’m worried it’s gone too far,” said the actor, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. “I don’t know whether he’s still loving it; I need to ask him.”
Still, Ramsey emphasized that Pascal’s recent success has been well-deserved.
“He’s a global phenomenon, as he should be, because he’s pretty spectacular,” they said.
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Though Pascal initially seemed to relish the attention, he appears to have grown a bit weary of the “daddy” title himself.
Though he jokingly referred to himself as a “cool, slutty daddy” in January after he was asked to read thirsty tweets about himself during a red carpet appearance to promote “The Last of Us,” he refused to indulge a reporter’s similar request in March.
In a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter this week, Pascal said he was “having fun” with his public persona but believes much of it stems from the roles he’s chosen to play more so than any physical attributes.
“There was a period where the Mandalorian is very daddy to baby Grogu, and Joel is very daddy to Ellie,” he said of his “Mandalorian” and “Last of Us” characters. “These are daddy parts. That’s what it is… I’m not a daddy and I’m not going to be a daddy.”