‘The Mandalorian’: Pedro Pascal’s Big Break Came From This ‘iPhone Selfie Audition’ That ‘Looked Like Sh*t’
It’s no secret that Pedro Pascal is the man behind the mask on the Disney+ live-action Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian. Fans swooned over his face in the two rare instances that he took his helmet off in season 2.
However, what fans might not know is that he used that fan-favorite face to send in an “iPhone selfie audition” that “looked like sh*t” to break into Hollywood.
‘The Mandalorian’ star Pedro Pascal tried changing his name to get discovered
Over 15 years ago, when Pascal was trying to break into the Television and Movie scene, he was willing to try just about anything to get noticed. The Chilean-American actor began to wonder if his name was a part of the reason why he wasn’t getting auditions.
Pascal had already changed his last name from Balmaceda (his father’s) to Pascal (his mother’s) after she unexpectedly died. The initial change was as a tribute to his late mother. However, after some consideration, he took it one step further, changing his first name from Pedro to Alexander.
“I was willing to do absolutely anything to work more,” he told Variety. “And that meant if people felt confused by who they were looking at in the casting room because his first name was Pedro, then I’ll change that. It didn’t work.”
The name change didn’t help Pascal so he decided to keep Pedro.
Pascal’s big break came from sending ‘an iPhone selfie audition’ for ‘Game of Thrones’
Finally, Pascal got the chance he was hoping for when his lifelong friend, actor Sarah Paulson sent his audition for Oberyn Martell to her best friend, Amanda Peet. She, in turn, showed the audition tape to Game of Thrones co-showrunner David Benioff.
“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff told the outlet. “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like sh*t, was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”
Thankfully, his friend got the sub-par audition into the hands of the right person. It didn’t matter that the video was a terrible quality, because the director could see passion. After the world saw Pascal’s performance as Oberyn, things began to happen for Pascal.
The actor was shocked when roles began falling in his lap
In 2018, when Pascal worked on Triple Frontier, with Oscar Isaac, producer Charles Roven unexpectedly called him. The producer wanted Pascal to star in Wonder Woman 1984, and the actor was confused. Patty Jenkins wanted to meet with him to discuss a role they wanted him for in the 2020 film.
“It was a f*cking offer,” Pascal explained. “I wasn’t really grasping that Patty wanted to talk to me about a part that I was going to play, not a part that I needed to get. I wasn’t able to totally accept that.”
It took some time for Pascal to understand what had happened to him. He no longer had to fight for auditions. The roles began coming to him.
