The “amateurish” incident that gave Pedro Pascal everything: “It looked like shit”
Not every actor has it easy. Once a star ‘makes it’, becoming widely acclaimed and well-known in the public eye, their days of struggling to land a role, any role, become a distant memory.
But you should never forget the hurdles and the mistakes, because that’s what keeps you humble, and Pedro Pascal definitely remembers that success doesn’t always come easily, especially because when he started acting in the ‘90s, opportunities were few and far between, with the Chilean-born actor cautious about taking on roles he found stereotypical.
It was proving difficult for the actor to land enough roles to keep him financially stable, but he wasn’t going to give up his dream of becoming a full-time performer, even if he was struggling to afford to eat, and in this TV proved to be his gateway into the industry, with Pascal appearing in various Law and Order episodes, The Good Wife, Graceland, and The Mentalist, slowly grabbing roles that allowed him to recur in more episodes.
Still, he was unsure where his career was going and needed something, or someone, more secure to reassure him that he was going to make it, and luckily, over the years, Pascal had acquired some pretty successful and well-connected friends, one of them being Sarah Paulson, with whom he was incredibly close, and she was best friends with Amanda Peet, the wife of David Benioff, a showrunner for Game of Thrones. Could this be his way into the more prestigious ranks of the industry after years of trying?
Pascal sent over an audition for the role of Oberyn Martell, who first appears in season four seeking revenge on the Lannisters, impressing Benioff; the actor had everything he was looking for, but the only catch was his “amateurish” audition, which many showrunners might have immediately discarded. Fortunately for Pascal, Benioff was interested in casting the actor, despite the fact that he had filmed himself on a phone that was clearly due a upgrade, which seemed to be proof enough that he needed this job.
“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff explained to Variety, “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like shit; it was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish.”
Benioff wasn’t turned off by this low-quality video audition, though, because he recognised Pascal’s talents, adding, “Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right”.
Pascal landed the role, subsequently breaking into the mainstream after years of trying and failing, and within a few years, he had found himself in further acclaimed TV shows, playing the main role in Narcos, soon followed by The Mandalorian and then The Last of Us, to practically become the king of good TV these days.
He owes all of this to Game of Thrones, though, explaining, “I was between Charles Dance and Lena Headey, with a view of the entire fucking set. I couldn’t believe I didn’t have an uncomfortable costume on. You know, I got to sit, and with this view. It strangely aligned itself with the kind of thinking I was developing as a child that, at that point, I was convinced was not happening.” But he’d finally made it.
