Our beloved Pedro Pascal recently recounted the day he got the call. You know, that special call all actors wait for. No, not a “Star Wars” lead in his own show (which he did), or an amazing role on the biggest tv show of the modern age “Game of Thrones” (which he also did). We’re instead talking about the time he landed the role of Joel Miller in HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
Only…he doesn’t remember it at all. It’s okay, it’s only a HUGE deal. We kid. We love Pedro Pascal here at Nerdbot. Apparently when he received the call, he’d previously taken an Ambien to calm his nerves and help him sleep.
The result was a bit of a gap in his memory. And he didn’t remember he’d gotten the role until he woke up to congratulations. During a late night call with series writer Craig Mazin, Pascal was going over scripts he’d been sent when Mazin asked if he could stay up longer to speak with “The Last of Us” creator Neil Druckmann. As amped as Pascal was to speak to Druckmann, he was in London at the time. And the time difference between there and Los Angeles was taking its toll.
“I take an Ambien to go to sleep just in case – they’ve got my adrenaline kind of going and my – my hopes up,” Pascal said. “But I get a call and I get told that I got the job after I took the Ambien. And so I was excited, I guess, but I didn’t remember.”
After such an exciting conversation, Pascal’s adrenaline rush was sure to keep him awake. It was only after the sleep aid was already taking effect that he received the call he’d landed the part. Hilariously, he was dead set on waiting by the phone for the call…without remembering it had already happened. It’s kind of adorable, really. He got to be excited for it all over again!
“The Last of Us” airs on HBO on Sundays.
