‘The Last of Us’ actor Pedro Pascal says he wouldn’t want to survive an apocalypse

Pedro Pascal is up for an Emmy for his role in HBO’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Last of Us — but in real life, he’s not sure he has the will to survive an end-of-the-world scenario.

“I’m definitely not down for stress,” the Chilean-born actor says. “The problem is that if the people that I love were sticking around and being like, ‘No, we gotta deal with this,’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh shoot, alright, let’s face this,’ because I’d be too scared of leaving anybody behind.”

Based on a hit video game, The Last Of Us chronicles the societal breakdown that happens when a fungal outbreak starts turning people into zombies. Pascal’s character, Joel, is contending with the loss of his daughter when he meets a Ellie, teenage girl who might be humanity’s last hope.

“The whole world of gaming really opened up to me when I took on this part,” he says. “My nephews lost their minds when they found out that I had gotten this job and I hadn’t heard of [the game].”

In the past decade, Pascal has become one of Hollywood’s most magnetic leading men. This summer, he stars in Eddington, Materialists and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He also recently appeared in the Disney series The Mandalorian. But success didn’t come quickly for Pascal; he spent much of his 20s and 30s struggling to make it in the New York theater scene. His big break came in 2014 when he was cast as in Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones.

“In many settings, being vulnerable or sensitive … can be deemed as weak and [it] was definitely a hard experience through different stages in life,” he says. “I feel profound gratitude to be doing something that I love to do.”

Interview highlights

On hosting SNL in 2023, on the anniversary of his mother’s death by suicide

It was obviously a sad anniversary for most of my adult life and for my family’s life. … I don’t think I realized [the SNL date] until there was kind of, like, a post-it note announcement, in the way that SNL does, where they have the date, the host and the musical guest. And I realized that … I hadn’t seen those numbers together outside of my mother’s gravestone. I was like, “Oh my gosh, wow.” …

My family was there [for the show], and it was a day of achievement, joy — incredible joy — and community. The other magical part of SNL is that it really actually felt like old days in the theater, like showing up and doing a reading of somebody’s play, or mounting something on the fly. Were it not for all of those years in New York, I think I cognitively could have easily had a total meltdown because of how you are needing to read cue cards and be in the moment?

On being terrified in a meeting with SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels

The first thing was going in and having a one-on-one with Lorne in his office and sitting across from this legendary person. … And to my left is this fish tank, with these big-eyed, blinking, smiling, kind of bulbous-lipped fish that are kind of, like, curiously swimming up to the glass to check out the stranger in the office. And it’s just giving you this sweet, dumb smile and blinking at you, and it was so disarming. … And then [Lorne] is somebody that really wants to set you up for success. And I felt very seen. And then comes the community of actors and writers that are all fully enthusiastic and passionate about what they do and get really excited if you’re down to do whatever.

On his dance training

That was an interesting crossroads for me, because I felt so in love with that kind of expression. It is like acting, and you’re using your full body. When I graduated, I was already lucky enough to be going on real casting appointments. But I was being invited into the world of dance. And I thought: Is this the direction that I’m going, is it the direction I’m meant to go into, into the arts and a less commercial understanding of what a career would be? And I didn’t have the courage for it.

On using his dance training for his Game of Thrones role

One would argue what the role is most known for is the fight, and that is more dance than you can possibly believe — if you don’t want to get killed anyway. That is physicality in its purest form, and that is choreography in its purist form. So it’s just ironic, because I was already pushing 40 when that job happened.

On why his parents were exiled from Chile and went into hiding

They were involved in the opposition movement against the military regime under Pinochet. They were [Salvador] Allende supporters and frankly just very young and liberal. … There’s a cousin of my mother, Andrés Pascal, who was a leader of the opposition movements. And so that, I think, just by association, sort of could put the name and family in peril. But there was someone who brought an injured man to my mother’s and father’s home, knowing that my father was doing his residency at a hospital, and asked for help. And he’d been shot in the leg. And it was a priest who brought him over to our house. … The priest was taken into custody and he was tortured and he gave names, and then they went looking for my parents, and so they had to go into hiding and find a way to survive.

Ann Marie Baldonado and Thea Chaloner produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the web.