‘Wonder Woman 1984’: Pedro Pascal Does Not Appreciate the Donald Trump Comparisons
When the trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 dropped in 2020, many fans compared Pedro Pascal‘s character, Maxwell Lord, to President Donald Trump. After viewers and critics watched the movie in December 2020, the comparisons did not stop. Pascal spoke out during various interviews, and he does not appreciate the reference.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’: Maxwell Lord is a lot like President Donald Trump
When critics watched Wonder Woman 1984, many quickly pointed out the striking similarities between Maxwell Lord and President Donald Trump.
“I’m not a con man, but a respected television personality,” Lord said at one point in Wonder Woman 1984.
Pascal’s character is a struggling yet charming businessman and TV personality. Lord is the founder of Black Gold Cooperative and spent most of his life searching for the Dreamstone. When he eventually found it, Lord used the power of the stone for personal gain. Many critics wrote about the similarity between Lord and Trump in their reviews.
“Patty Jenkins’ sequel is a well-intentioned but sloppy punch against Trumpism,” Collider’s review began. “Jenkins makes no secret to what she’s aiming for with her movie. Set in the 1980s, she depicts a world of excess, self-entitlement, and indulgence, and Lord is a distinctly Trumpian figure with his reliance on mass media and conning others to amass more power.”
Pedro Pascal emphasized that he did not channel Donald Trump for Maxwell Lord
In several interviews, Pascal told fans that he never thought of the former President as Lord. He did say to Indie Wire that he saw the Lord and Trump comparisons coming because of his character’s physical resemblance to the former President.
“That visual obviously has a specific reference,” Pascal told the outlet. “But in playing it, I’m not inspired by the reference at all. It wouldn’t have taken me anywhere. Of course, I didn’t have to think about other people. I wasn’t asked to. It didn’t come up in conversation. And personally, internally, I didn’t want to do that.”
In another interview with Extra TV, Pascal again admitted that his character had a “familiar image.” However, he explained that Lord is a brand new character.
“I’m not going to lie,” he told Extra TV. “I totally expected to go into it with very specific references. From my point of view, I was bringing up Gordon Gekko from the start because that’s my reference — the ultimate villain from the 80s. What I started to learn was I had to ultimately let all of that go.”
Then, he said one more thing to solidify his belief that Lord is not President Trump.
“Sure, he looks like people that we’ve seen,” Pascal added about the Trump references. “In my mind, it was always American Psycho, Gordon Gekko, but then we had to flesh out a human being that I feel is so unique to this movie.”
Gal Gadot added that the writers did not try to ‘mimic Trump’
In an interview with Variety, Gal Gadot (who portrays Wonder Woman) revealed the true inspiration between Lord’s character.
“Maxwell Lord has so many different versions in the comic world,” Gadot told the outlet. “I think that Patty and Dave and Jeff, the writers, really took Gordon Gekko’s personality. The thing about Maxwell Lord in our movie, unlike the comics, is that he is more complex. He’s not just an evil villain. He is a regular person who wants to be all these things.”
She also emphasized that Pascal and the director did not try to make Lord seem like former President Trump.
“I know from Pedro, while we were shooting the movie, and at a certain point, he just focused on the page and what was there,” she added. “Along with Patty, they just created this character. We never tried to mimic anybody else. We never tried to mimic Trump.”
