Staring down the barrel of the camera during a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Pedro Pascal uttered these immortal words: “I’m your daddy.” And who are we to argue?
The internet’s collective daddy has become the world’s foremost television star. With a CV bursting with cultural touchstones – including Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, and now, The Last of Us – the Chilean star has cemented his status as someone who can lead a franchise to immense success. The fact he has done so while gaining such a revered place online speaks to the growth of prestige TV, Reel and TikTok subcultures, and Pascal’s mercurial charisma.
But why him? Why now? By Pascal’s own admission, luck has something to do with it. After more than a decade playing small roles on shows like CSI, The Good Wife, Law and Order, and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the actor rose when he was approaching 40, on the biggest show of all.
Indeed, Pascal strutted onto Game of Thrones in 2014 when the show hit its critical apex. It’s a blunt measure, but season four, the one that introduced us to The Viper, Oberyn Martel, was Thrones’ best reviewed (as per Rotten Tomatoes). At the centre of this was Pascal’s louche, rakish Prince of Dorne, sliding into the suffocating politics of King’s Landing on a wave of sexual fluidity and vengeance. As showrunners David Weiss and David Benioff noted, they “were looking for an actor with charisma, sexual energy, physical menace and depth”. Although delivered through an “amateurish” iPhone audition, Pascal delivered a performance that was “intense and believable and just right.”
It was a role that showcased Pascal’s sparkling charisma and his penchant for steeliness. As he told Entertainment Weekly in 2022, “I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for that role.” From Thrones, Pascal gained a place as flinty DEA agent Javier Pena in another cultural behemoth, Netflix’s Narcos, one of the early originals from the streamer. From there, his career has hit new heights.
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His two current roles on TV share a rugged stoicism: the deeply traumatised Joel Miller in The Last of Us and dogmatic Din Djarin in The Mandalorian. In both, Pascal brings a brooding charisma to the silence. It’s not personable, but it’s magnetic, a type of brusque masculinity that could feel outdated, but in Pascal’s hands is emotionally nimble. Joel carries more than 20 years of pain and grief with every step, while the titular Mandalorian broods on his place in a wide universe. In both scenarios, of course, he is tasked with supporting a child surrogate.
And yet, online, Pedro Pascal’s persona is infinitely more open and fluid. He’s a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ rights and progressive, left-wing politics. He’s ruggedly handsome and playful. Hey, he’s “the internet’s daddy” – a meme coloured by the heady mix of traditional masculinity and emotional dexterity present in so many of his characters. But Pascal’s personal life remains obscure, often by design. On-set romances are brushed off, and the internet is then left to bask in the blanks.
We know a little about his early life. One of the most endearing moments from Pascal’s recent appearance on SNL came during his opening monologue, where he tearfully thanked his family for their support, referencing their decision to flee Chile in the face of General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. Personal glimpses like these only embolden the aspects of Pascal to which the internet has taken so strongly.
Pascal’s stardom is informed more by his appearances on television than those on film. Eccentric, firecracker turns in the Kingsman and Wonder Woman franchises have proven secondary, and are more cartoonishly charismatic than his TV roles.
His most recent film role, in the gloriously meta The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, was Javi Gutierrez, a billionaire mobster with an infatuated shrine to his hero, Nicolas Cage. By bringing together the hard edge that defines so many of his TV roles and an underlying dash of internet fandom, the film illuminates Pascal’s wide-ranging appeal.
Because whether showcased on the moons of Tatooine and abandoned outskirts of Boston, or distilled through the sparkling glow of a fancam, Pascal’s two charismatic personas – the rugged, taciturn characters he excels in, and the swaggering confidence the internet has latched onto – make an impact.