SCREEN FIEND GUNS FOR GAL
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ a pic Pascal can ‘get drunk on’
It’s no small wonder Pedro Pascal was blown away by his time on the “Wonder Woman 1984” set.
For an actor who grew up in the 1980s, starring in a massive superhero movie that is set in that decade felt both nostalgic and exhilarating, especially considering how electrifying some of the scenes were in the film based on the DC comics.
“There’s so much to it that I expected would be visual effects,” Pascal told the Daily News. “My firsthand experience with one particular sequence where the physical way that they were creating the action was astonishing to me. I felt like I was physically at the center of one of these big movies that I saw as a kid, like ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ That was definitely a pinch-me moment.”
The past several years have been filled with pinch-me moments for Pascal, from his memorable turn as the charming Oberyn Martell on “Game of Thrones” to his role as the gritty, titular bounty hunter in the live-action “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian.”
The Chilean-born star embraced a much different type of character in “Wonder Woman 1984” by portraying the villainous Maxwell Lord, a power-hungry oil tycoon who will stop at nothing to feed his ego.
“We look back on the ‘80s and see all that excess as so fun and expressive, but the other side to it is pretty obvious,” Pascal, 45, said. “He’s the full personification of that, of greed and it never being enough. Going after what you want — you’re entitled to it — and when you get it, you want more and you want more and you want more. It’s an insatiable need to succeed and to continue defining what success is in a completely unilateral way.”
Lord, one of the big additions to the movie franchise, poses major problems for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman in the new film, which premieres in theaters and on HBO Max over Christmas.
The movie serves as a sequel to 2017 s critically acclaimed “Wonder Woman,” with Patty Jenkins returning as director.
Pascal relished playing a showy, over-the-top villain and enjoyed the challenge of bringing humanity to the character, even as he committed atrocities on the screen.
“I started my career in the theater, from classical stage to contemporary, and it’s much more in my wheelhouse to make big choices and to have a large physicality and to make a big swing,” Pascal said. “I’m more built that way. I’ve actually kind of learned how to do the brood. The larger-than-life thing comes a little naturally to me, as far as performances go. I was always, as a kid, after a lot of attention, so it felt like a return.”
As a lifelong fan of superheroes, Pascal found starring in “Wonder Woman 1984” to be a powerful experience.
“To be in this movie, when I saw it, it was incredibly emotional because I was seeing myself in something that would’ve intoxicated me as a child,” Pascal said. “I would’ve been drunk on this movie for the whole year as a kid, so to be in it was very, very, very emotional for me.”