Pedro Pascal Shares Why His ‘NYPD Blue’ Character Was ‘Unusually Fun’ to Play
These days, Pedro Pascal is one of the internet’s favorite stars. In just a few years, the actor has arisen from a breakout star of Narcos to a legitimate leading man. Of course, Game of Thrones is a big part of that ascension as well. But despite his current success, Pascal has no qualms about looking back at his early career, including his guest appearance on NYPD Blue.
Pedro Pascal made many TV guest appearances before his big break
Arguably, Pascal first gained mainstream attention as Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones. But long before he joined that show -– and was spectacularly killed off –- in season 4, the actor was making the rounds and paying his dues with regular guest appearances on a variety of hit TV series. This includes roles on more than 20 shows, including multi-episode stints on The Mentalist, Graceland, and The Good Wife.
During this period, Pascal also made one-off appearances on some of TV’s most popular shows. Between 1999 and 2014, he popped up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Touched by an Angel, Law & Order: Criminal Intent (playing separate characters in two different episodes), Without a Trace, Law & Order, Nurse Jackie, Charlie’s Angels, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Homeland.
Why Pedro Pascal found his ‘NYPD Blue’ character such a blast
But one of Pascal’s most memorable TV guest spots was on ABC hit NYPD Blue. The actor appeared on that police procedural in the 2001 episode “Oh Golly Goth,” playing a character named Shane ‘Dio’ Morrissey, who came up during Pascal’s appearance on Hot Ones.
“There was a really unusually fun character that I got to play on NYPD Blue, this goth guy named Dio. He had all these fake piercings, and he’s this teenager hitting on the female cop. At one point, he has a pentagram inside of his palm that they made with a black Sharpie. I lick it, and I make up some satanic language…I thought that it’s supposed to be Latin or something. I remember thinking, ‘Do you have Latin words that I’m supposed to learn?’ And they were like, ‘No, dude. Just make it up.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ It’s the kind of thing where I lick the hand and I turn slowly toward the camera [saying] some crazy s–t on an episode of your ABC television hit NYPD Blue. I made up the language.”
In hindsight, it’s easy to see why such a colorful character -– ironically dressed all in black –- would stand out among Pascal’s many TV roles of the era. The role also stands as one of a few in which Pascal was actually credited under a different name, going by “Alexander Pascal.” His full name for the record? José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal.
Pedro Pascal is currently leading 2 massively successful shows
After so many years working as a journeyman actor on one television show after another, Pascal finally landed the role of a lifetime in 2019. Even though the actor was a lead character on Netflix drama Narcos, he found a whole new level of fame as the title character on the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian, which entered season 3 in March 2023.
Just a couple of months prior, Pascal added a second massively popular TV series to his schedule. The actor also stars opposite Bella Ramsey as Joel Miller on HBO’s The Last of Us. Based on the popular video game, the show has become a top ratings earner as well as a critical darling. Soon after its premiere, HBO renewed The Last of Us for season 2.
