8 Wild Pedro Pascal Facts That Have Nothing To Do With Baby Yoda Or Fungus Zombies

His Very First Audition Lost Him The Role To Edward Norton — Then He Basically Vanished For A Decade

Pedro Pascal's first-ever Hollywood audition was for the 1996 legal thriller Primal Fear, a role that ultimately went to Edward Norton. He didn't just lose that one part — he later admitted the disappointment kicked off a brutal stretch where he was scraping by almost entirely on TV guest spots.

He Was A 9-Month-Old Political Refugee Before He Was Ever An Actor

Pascal's family had to flee Chile during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship after his father, a medical resident, treated a gunshot victim tied to the anti-Pinochet opposition and the family became targets of the investigation. He and his older sister were granted asylum in Denmark before the family eventually resettled in San Antonio, Texas.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Gave Him An Early Role — Then Killed Him Off In The Same Episode

Back in 1999, a baby-faced Pascal played college freshman Eddie in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4 premiere, sharing a sweet moonlit chat with Buffy — right before he gets turned into a vampire and staked by her a few scenes later. Decades later, Pascal still remembered the shoot in vivid detail, including Sarah Michelle Gellar's kindness on set.

His Best Friend Was Literally Feeding Him During The Broke Years

Long before either of them were famous, Sarah Paulson — Pascal's friend since their NYU/theater days in the 1990s — would give him cash from her own acting jobs just so he'd have grocery money. As Paulson put it, there were stretches where she'd hand over her per diem so that he could have money to feed himself.

He Landed Game Of Thrones With A Blurry Selfie Video Shot On An Old iPhone

Pascal's audition for Oberyn Martell wasn't some polished studio tape — showrunner David Benioff later admitted it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual, and this wasn't one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. The tape only reached Benioff because Sarah Paulson passed it to her friend Amanda Peet, who happened to be married to him.

"Pedro Pascal" Isn't Even The Name He Grew Up With

He was born José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal, and for years worked under the name Pedro Balmaceda — including in his Buffy credit. After his mother died in 1999, Pascal changed his professional name from Balmaceda to Pascal to honor her, partly, he's said, because Americans had such a hard time pronouncing Balmaceda.

He Nearly Walked Away From Acting Entirely Before Thrones Ever Called

Pascal has admitted he gave himself a mental deadline for making it, later confessing his vision of it was that if he didn't have some major exposure by the time he was 29 years old, it was over. He kept resetting that deadline for years, calling the period one where he "died so many deaths" before Oberyn Martell finally arrived.

His Little Sister Is Also An Actor — And They've Already Shared A Screen

Pascal's younger sister, Lux Pascal, built her own acting career starting with Chilean productions like the series "Veinteañero a los 40" and the film "The Prince," where she played male roles. The siblings have actually worked together on-screen too — she appeared alongside Pedro in the third season of Narcos, where she played the role of Elijah.