The Big Picture
- Pedro Pascal's rise to fame began with his role on Game of Thrones, which he got with the help of his long-time friend Sarah Paulson.
- Pascal mentored a young actor's audition for Game of Thrones, but secretly recorded his own audition and got his manager involved to secure the role for himself.
- Sarah Paulson came to Pascal's rescue by showing his audition tape to David Benioff, one of the showrunners of Game of Thrones, ultimately helping Pascal land the role of Oberyn Martell.
Pedro Pascal has been gracing our screens for decades in underappreciated roles. Since his recent rise to fame, the internet has crowned the actor with the moniker of "daddy," partly due to his recurring roles as brooding father figures in TV shows such as The Mandalorian and The Last of Us. His older TV appearances have also been the focus of fan worship, with resurfaced clips of Pascal as a guest star on Buffy the Vampire Slayer going viral too.
Pedro Pascal's enormous rise to fame began with his role as Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones, which led to his joint-lead role on Netflix's Narcos and subsequent movie roles such as Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Game of Thrones is a show famous for twists of backstabbing and double-crossing, but did you know that's how the actor actually got his career-changing role in real life?
Not only did Pascal utilize some Game of Thrones-style power plays in his successful attempt to gain the role of Oberyn, but he also recruited the help of a long-time famous friend to get that sneakily-made audition tape into the right hands. That friend was none other than American Horror Story's Sarah Paulson. Paulson and Pascal have been friends since 1993, when Pascal was studying at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Paulson was a recent graduate of LaGuardia High.
According to Paulson, after her career began to take off and Pascal was still stuck making guest appearances, "There were times when I would give him my per diem from a job I was working on so that he could have money to feed himself." The two have remained friends for thirty years, and have appeared at red carpet events together, with Paulson also being dubbed "mommy" by the internet.
Pedro Pascal Stole His 'Game of Thrones' Role From His Acting Mentee
In a 2016 interview with Seth Meyers, Pascal recalls the "long story" that led to him landing the Game of Thrones role that would change his life. He told Meyers, "I was a mentor to a graduate of USC. An actor. [...] His first audition on tape he wants my help with, and it's like seventeen pages of a new role for Game of Thrones.
" Pascal goes on to praise the actor's ability, but justify that he just wasn't suited for this particular role. "He's like a twenty-five-year-old kid, really, really talented, good-looking [...] He'd never seen the show - I was a huge fan." As a fan of the show, Pascal read the sides thinking it would make for an amazing character. He describes Oberyn as "in his late-30s. He was a slut. He had like eight daughters. He's dangerous. I was like, 'This is perfect... for me!'"
Pascal mentored the young actor's audition, helping him record his tape, but when the mentee left to use the restroom, Pascal admitted he texted his manager right away about getting the part himself. "It's terrible!" Pascal later joked that he'd locked his mentee in the bathroom, accompanied by a villainous laugh and a mustache-twirling gesture, but in reality, he waited until after the session had passed to record his own interpretation of the sides on camera. Seth Meyers then pressed,
"And that's how you got the part?" "Well, no," replies Pascal. There was still the matter of getting his audition seen by the appropriate people, since by his own admittance, Pascal was unknown at the time. "I told you it was a long story."
Sarah Paulson Came to Pedro Pascal's Rescue Yet Again
Having been fruitlessly auditioning since he was twenty years old, Pascal's anonymity at the time meant that, regardless of his audition tape's quality, he needed help getting it considered. At this point, he had already contacted his agent but had yet to hear back. He had recorded his interpretation of Oberyn on his iPhone and decided to call his friend Sarah Paulson for advice.
Paulson, who had been Pascal's friend since they were eighteen, is also friends with actress Amanda Peet, best known for The Whole Nine Yards and As Good As It Gets. More importantly for Pascal's mission, Peet is married to one of Game of Thrones' two showrunners, David Benioff.
Pascal begged Paulson, "'Look, I've just put myself on tape for this amazing part. I don't think anyone's going to see it. Maybe you...' She didn't even let me finish. She said, 'You send me that tape right now!'" That very same night, before Pascal's agents had even had a chance to see the recording they'd been sent, Paulson had managed to show Peet the audition and ensured it was sent to Benioff and his fellow showrunner D.B. Weiss.
Needless to say, Pascal's audition proved successful for the actor. Not only did the character of Oberyn Martell help skyrocket Pedro Pascal's career as an actor, but his performance helped elevate the show itself, with his season-long arc contributing to Season 4 becoming the highest-rated season of Game of Thrones according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Pedro Pascal Didn't Know He Had the Job Until He Was Already Working
"I could tell this was a special, special part," Pascal told Meyers. "I'm kinda freaking out about it." Eventually, though, Pascal received a phone call from Paulson which didn't necessarily alleviate his stress. "She's like, 'How are you doing?' And I was like, 'I'm kinda freaking out.' And she's like, 'Well, just listen to me. I know things, OK? And I can't say anything and I don't know anything, but I know things [...] So, I just don't want you to worry.'"
Soon after, Pascal was asked to visit the Game of Thrones production offices in Belfast, for what he assumed to be the final stage of his audition process. It turned out, however, that Pascal had already been cast, but had not been told. "They're like, 'You're going to love Croatia,' and 'Meet the director,' and 'Have a costume fitting.' [...] and I still didn't have the balls to ask them if I had gotten the part!"
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