Pedro Pascal played many different roles that required many different things from him. From playing Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones to appearing as The Mandalorian, and most recently, playing Joel Miller in The Last of Us, there is absolutely no doubt that he will go above and beyond for any role that he plays. Many of the characters that he plays, ask for him to learn specific skills in order to be convincing in his performance. The perfect example of this would be his work in the television series, Narcos.
The actor revealed that for this role, he ended up going to Quantico, training with and being alongside, real-life, DEA agents. During one of these training sessions, the actor was almost shot in the head with real blanks by these agents.
Pedro Pascal Was Very Nervous About His Training
Pedro Pascal gave an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Here he spoke on many subjects surrounding the making of the highly acclaimed and popular series, Narcos. He revealed that while training with the DEA agents, he and his co-star, Boyd Holbrook, were made to do a tactical simulation. The simulation in question required two to, one by one, go into a fake drug den, meet a fake drug dealer, put on a convincing performance, and buy drugs from him, something in the story, they had done in the past.
“We did tactical simulations where we kind of had to perform a scenario. I had to go buy drugs from someone’s house. This was all at Quantico. You have a description of what you are supposed to do, what you are supposed to ask and the assignment is, just knock on the door, you’ve met this guy before, you’ve bought drugs off him one time before. You’re gonna just buy the drugs and go. You’re not gonna catch him.”
During this, Pascal was extremely nervous. He did not want to make a fool of himself in front of the agents, and at the same time was afraid of what would happen if he was caught. When he came face-to-face, with the drug dealer, he started to get extremely nervous, so much so that the other person noticed.
“I go and I knock on the door and the guy invites me inside the house immediately and I’m terrified. I just know these DEA agents are having fun with the stupid actors who are trying to be cool at Quantico. And he’s like ‘Come on inside.’ and I’m like ‘Nah, I don’t think I should’ and he is like what’s wrong, and I’m like I don’t know, what’s wrong? and He’s like ‘You’re being different’ and I’m like ‘So are you’ and he was like, ‘You were so chill last time’ and I was like ‘You were so chill last time.’ and we went at this for a long time and then finally he was so frustrated because he had to sell me the drugs. So I bought the drugs and I left.”
The dealer asked him why he was acting weird, stating that he wasn’t like this the last time they met. Oddly enough, in his nervousness, Pascal switches the question on to him, telling him that she is the one who is acting weird. They went back and forth on this for a while, until the drug dealer gave up, handed him the drugs, and he was on his merry way.
Things Could Have Been A Lot Worse
As it turns out, things could have been a lot worse for Pedro Pascal, as was demonstrated by Boyd Holbrook, who was also doing the simulation but went before him. It was when Holbrook came back from his simulation, and Pascal was supposed to go, that The Last Of Us actor found out, at one point, that during the exchange with the drug dealer, if he had gone inside the house, another person would show up.
“And then they took me through what was going to happen to me if I went into the house.”
The actor then went on to tell on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert what would’ve happened if the third person had shown up. He revealed that this person would pull out a gun, filled with real blanks, that he would then shoot at his head. Regardless of whether or not, they are real bullets, it is safe to assume that they would still hurt really bad. This is what happened to Holbrook, who, according to Pedro Pascal, looked completely traumatized when he came back from his simulation.
Also Read: Not Pedro Pascal, A Major Fan-Favorite Game of Thrones Actor Could Have Been the Next James Bond
