Liane Hentscher/HBO
Last weekend at the People's Choice Awards, Pedro Pascal won the fan vote for Male TV Star of the Year for his role as Joel in HBO's The Last Of Us. Six days later, he won his peers' vote and won the SAG Award for Male Actor in a Drama Series, his first major industry honor.
Having lost to Succession's Kieran Culkin at previous awards shows this season, Pascal looked stunned when his name was called.
“This is wrong for several reasons,” he said on stage. “I'm drunk. I thought I could get drunk.”
Later in the press room, Pascal revealed he had been drinking tequila and confirmed he was “really surprised” by the win, leaving him in tears backstage with his publicists.
For the SAG Awards, which took place in Los Angeles, Pascal flew in from Vancouver, where the second season of “The Last of Us” has been in production since February 12th. (He accepted the People's Choice Award remotely.)
“Filming is going fantastically,” Pascal told Deadline about the first two weeks of production. “It’s kind of impressive how focused and dedicated everyone is going into the second season.”
He then singled out The Last of Us co-creator and executive producer Craig Mazin and his co-star Bella Ramsey, calling them “the kind of leadership and guidance I've never experienced before.”
“It's incredible to be back home with them and creative and everyone, our entire crew, is working harder than I could even imagine, even harder than our first season, which is almost impossible. “It's pretty inspiring and incredible and that’s because of them,” Pascal said, referring to his SAG Award.
He later spoke more about returning to The Last of Us set for Season 2 to reprise his role as Joel.
“When you put these boots back on, it feels strangely brand new,” he said. “I had never done anything like this before that had such original authorship before I even got around to it.”
“The Last of Us” is based on the popular video game of the same name, with Neil Druckmann, co-creator and executive producer of the TV series, co-producing alongside Mazin.
“And then being given the space to write what I had to give and being under Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and alongside Bella Ramsey was really the only reason it worked for me,” he said. “I guess I learn something new every day and will probably think about it for the rest of my life.”
Here are Pascal's backstage remarks:
Key new additions to the second season, based on the game The Last of Us: Part II, include Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina and Young Mazino as Jesse.
Mazin and Druckmann will direct episodes of the second season alongside Peter Hoar from the first season as well as Mark Mylod (Succession), Nina Lopez-Corrado (Perry Mason), Stephen Williams (Watchmen) and Kate Herron (Loki).