Pedro Pascal nervously addresses being part of big franchise “machines”

Pedro Pascal is on his Sydney Sweeney beat: the actor is up to his ears in new projects, one of the entertainment industry’s most sought-after stars. That’s on top of the already lofty list of franchises he’s been part of, including Game Of Thrones, Star Wars (via The Mandalorian), The Last Of Us, Kingsman, Wonder Woman, and more. So how does it feel to be Hollywood’s go-to guy?

“My body temperature just went up,” Pascal laughs when asked during The Hollywood Reporter’s drama actor roundtable. “I’ve had the interesting experience and the fortune, really, to be a part of jobs that have these franchise-size successes, and you’re very taken care of in terms of their level of exposure and, if you can, being a part of elevating that or nurturing that in any way with your acting.”

Here’s where Pascal tip-toes into tricky territory. “That’s been very lucky for me, but they’ve all felt like these kinds of big machines. And so it would be really interesting to see what happens if I can step into something that is more of a risk as far as how big the project is, where it would be more story,” he says cautiously, before adding: “Not to say that it’s not because of the stories that these things that are grander in scale work.” He nervously concludes: “Do you see [my glasses] fogging?”

Pascal admits it’s “totally scary” to be part of a property that’s so beloved, but he didn’t feel it acutely until The Last Of Us. “Because there was more of an exposed silhouette, a silhouette of coolness maybe, and an expectation to be met as far as what people’s immersive experience of the story was,” he said. “And to disappoint them in that regard felt like it would be … I don’t know. You don’t want to let people down, but also nobody’s impervious to disappointing people. I want people to like me.” They certainly like him enough to keep casting him in things!