Pedro Pascal is currently a hot name in Hollywood, with every studio waiting for him to free up his call sheet. Before his fame, Pascal was a struggling Chilean-born actor in the industry trying to make it big since the 1990s. His big break came only in 2014 when he was cast as Oberyn Martell in the fourth season of Game of Thrones. Pascal recently revealed that he was working as a waiter in the 1990s while auditioning for TV shows and commercials.
Pascal’s Game of Thrones role brought along several opportunities in different projects. He played crucial supporting characters, antagonists, and leading roles in projects, including Narcos, Wonder Woman 2, and The Mandalorian. He became the internet’s daddy/zaddy with his role in HBO’s The Last of Us.
Pedro Pascal’s Pre-Fame Life Included A Waiter Job And Losing Out On An HBO Role
Pedro Pascal‘s Hollywood success stands on the foundation of the years of constant struggle the actor went through to make a living as an actor. In a 2023 interview with Esquire, Pascal relived his life after graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He shared that he waited tables at several New York restaurants, naming a few like Time Cafe, El Teddy’s, and Ruby Foo’s. He got fired from most of these jobs, as he was simultaneously attending auditions. Pascal shared with Esquire:
“I was getting my a** f**king kicked. I guess this delusional self-determination, and no real skill at anything else, is what kept me going.”
During this period, he also befriended a group of aspiring actors from the other arts school in NY, LaGuardia High. This group involved actress Sarah Paulson, who remains good friends with Pascal and even played a crucial role in helping Pascal audition for his breakthrough GoT role. She told Esquire that she would lend him her “per diem from a job [she] was working on” so that the actor could feed himself.
From 1999, Pascal began landing small roles in television series, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Good Wife, Homeland, The Mentalist, and Law & Order. Interestingly, he was approached for a role in the 2014 HBO series, Looking. The casting director of the series Carmen Cuba shared this info with GQ, adding that she later cast him in Narcos. She also shared that Pascal was not selected since the series was looking to cast a group that worked well together. Cuba told GQ:
“Pedro Pascal was someone we met [for a role on ‘Looking’] and from that, I put him on ‘Narcos.’ The thing with Pedro, it was like he was testing on a million things. So many of these things, as you know in casting, it’s just like scheduling. Does scheduling work? Does the group? Because in this, we were really casting a group.”
Looking was helmed by BAFTA-nominated All of Us Strangers director Andrew Haigh. The series eventually cast Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, and Murray Bartlett as the leads in the first season. Interestingly, Bartlett was part of Pedro Pascal’s hit series The Last of Us, playing a crucial role in the Emmy-winning episode, Long, Long Time. While Pascal lost the role in Looking, several doors opened for him.
Also Read: Pedro Pascal Agrees to Join Force With His ‘Rival’ But He Has 2 Conditions
Coming From A Family Of Political Refugees, Pedro Pascal Has Made A $10M Fortune
Pedro Pascal’s parents were political refugees from Chile, who left the country when Pascal was just nine months old. While the family spent a few years in Texas, all except Pascal and his sister moved back to Chile. Starting his film career from a shoebox apartment in New York, Pascal now boasts a $10 million net worth (via Celebrity Net Worth).
For his most successful series, The Last of Us, Pascal reportedly made $4.5 million. His per-episode salary for the HBO series was $600,000 (via Variety). He is likely to get a pay raise in Season 2. His salary for The Mandalorian remains undisclosed, however, the actor likely gets a lower compensation for the series, since he spends most of his time inside a mask.
For his brief stint on Game of Thrones, Pascal’s salary can be assumed to be in the five-figure range per episode when compared to the lead actor Kit Harington‘s $500,000 per episode salary. His Narcos salary also remains undisclosed. His net worth will likely soar through the roofs if the news about his casting as Reed Richards in the MCU becomes official.
