Graphic by Gabby Gagnon ‘24.
By Eliška Jacob ’24
Arts & Entertainment Editor
José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal, more colloquially known as Pedro Pascal, is a 47-year-old Chilean actor who has taken the internet by storm. Notably, he has starred as Din Djarin, the main character in “The Mandalorian,” Oberyn Martell in “Game of Thrones” and most recently, Joel Miller in the video game adaptation “The Last of Us,” which premiered on Jan. 15, 2023. Pascal has drawn significant attention from younger audiences, manifesting from his diverse acting abilities and good looks. The latter seems to have significantly aided his thrust into the social media limelight.
Born on April 2, 1975, in Santiago, Chile, Pascal endured a tumultuous upbringing. His family actively protested the Chilean authoritarian military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that began in 1973. The Pascal family’s rebellion against the Pinochet regime was fueled by Pascal’s mother’s relation as the cousin of Andrés Pascal Allende, who was the nephew of socialist Salvador Allende, the Chilean president preceding Pinochet. To seek safety, the Pascals were granted political asylum in Denmark by the Venezuelan embassy.
The family moved to the United States, residing in California and then Texas. Pascal attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and began professionally acting in 1996 with his debut in “Burning Bridges,” a short film by Marcus Hahn. From television roles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Narcos” to movies such as “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” Pascal has slowly, through the hard work of being featured in at least one show or movie per year since 1996, established himself as a prominent actor in Hollywood.
The fixation on Pascal, specifically his looks, has taken center stage with the debut of TikTok user @dvcree’s Pascal fan edits. One particular edit featured Pascal as Agent Whiskey in “Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle” with a sultry video collage of Agent Whiskey against the song “Hey Sexy Lady” by Shaggy. This fan craze is not only limited to the internet and the various iterations of #PedroPascalEdit that are pervading social media hashtags. The mania has spread to our very own campus. “First of all, he’s been iconic since Game of Thrones,” Amelia Anderson ’26 began, “[an] early bisexual icon [on the show]; he was incredible.”
“I’m a huge Pedro fan, personally. I just find him so likable in interviews, and that’s what really sells me on an actor; their charisma and likability as seen in interviews. In addition to their acting, of course.”
A role that truly began to propel Pascal to the limelight was his role in “The Mandalorian,” a Disney+ Star Wars series that features Pascal as the faceless main character. Watching the show, there was an air of mystery surrounding what Pascal and his character the Mandalorian looked like. “As the Mandalorian, don’t even get me STARTED. It truly changed the trajectory of the Star Wars franchise. He was amazing. How he managed to be hot while wearing a mask is incredible,” Anderson explains.
Following his role as the Mandalorian, Pascal’s role in “The Last of Us” connects him to an even newer audience. “The Last of Us” is a video game released in 2013 that centers around Pascal’s character Joel Miller, and Ellie, a young teenage girl, as they traverse across a post-apocalyptic United States. With Pascal typecasted as the “grumpy reluctant father figure,” begins Anderson, “‘The Last of Us’ is so good, and it’s partially because [Pascal] is so good as Joel. He’s such a complex character. I never played the game, but I watched a playthrough, and [Pascal] IS Joel but so much deeper and complex.”
As Pascal has gained notoriety with these various roles, the fan edits, beginning with @dvcree’s, have “changed the trajectory of this man’s career,” explained Anderson. “The impact that edit had is insane. I now have a folder on TikTok of 50+ edits. Like, it’s turned into an addiction.”
Anderson notes the impact of TikTok in the rapid spread of Pascal edits: “I think the platform of TikTok helps because it makes you feel like EVERYONE else is obsessed too, like an echo chamber. There’s definitely something to say about the speed of trends nowadays because it was a matter of days before [Pascal] was everywhere.”
Hurtt also shares an appreciation for these edits. “I personally love the [number] of edits circling on social media. It’s such a creative way to show your love for an actor by taking time out of your day to edit your favorite moments of them together into a concise video to be widely distributed across the internet. Every time I see one, I feel like the creator of the edit is trying to sell me on him. I love it.”
While hosting SNL on Feb. 4, 2023, Pascal poked fun and communicated his awareness of these fan edits in a skit titled “Fancam Assembly.” In this sketch, Pascal assumes the role of a schoolteacher lecturing students on the ban of fancam edits. As he speaks, the students make fancam edits of him in real-time, leading to an endless cycle of Pascal edits that he cannot escape. Hurtt commented on this satirical self-awareness, “I love when actors acknowledge the existence of edits, especially thirst ones. Nothing motivates the fans to create more edits than the actor themself admitting they’re aware of edits, or even seek them out to watch from time to time.”
Anderson echoed this appreciation, explaining, “It’s a crazy snowball. I saw one [edit], and then all of a sudden, they’re EVERYWHERE, and there [are] not only new edits but remixes, memes referencing edits and then SNL referenced it. Now people are going back and watching his other shows, like Narcos, because they think he’s hot.”
As edits continue circulating the internet, the growth of the obsession with and fixation on Pascal is tangible. On one end of the spectrum, “it’s created this insane hyperfixation for me,” Anderson concluded. Not everyone who has seen the edits has had to navigate the rocky roads of fan mania, evidenced by Hurtt’s proclamation: “May Pedro continue to be cast in projects in the future so that edit makers may be supplied with new footage.”