Names and faces

• When Pedro Pascal started to think about his “Wonder Woman 1984” villain Max Lord, one name came to mind: Gordon Gekko. Who better to model his driven, power suit-wearing character on than the embodiment of 1980s greed and callousness? But director Patty Jenkins had something different in mind than the Michael Douglas character. (Both say it wasn’t Donald Trump, either.) “She pulled me away from that,” Pascal said.

“She was like, ‘that’s not the polish that we’re after.’” It was a nerve-wracking realization for Pascal, who thought he’d be able to hide behind the slickness of a cold and calculating finance guy. But it was a call that he ended up loving in the end. “What we went after was so much more unpredictable and exposed,” he said. “The thing that would ultimately anchor me to him was far more vulnerable than what a Gordon Gekko-type would be.” In the film, which debuts in theaters and on HBO Max in the United States on Christmas Day, Max Lord is a divorced dad, minor television personality and wannabe oil tycoon whose wealth is mostly smoke and mirrors until he gets hold of a powerful, wish-granting stone. Since getting cast in “Wonder Woman 1984,” Pascal’s star has risen immeasurably thanks to the wildly popular Star Wars spinoff “The Mandalorian,” which just concluded its second season on Disney+. Although Max Lord and the mysterious bounty hunter couldn’t be more different, there is a fairly poignant similarity that’s not lost on Pascal. “Max Lord has such an exterior armor with hair products and power suits … which is such a mask with so much going on just beneath it, that contradicts so much what sort of physical message he’s portrayed with his persona,” Pascal said. “[It’s] a lot like the Mandalorian.”

▪ The U. S. House and Senate have signed off on a measure that would upgrade the federal designation of various sites in Plains, Ga., tied to former President Jimmy Carter. Now, it’s up to President Donald Trump to decide if he will sign the bill into law to allow the farm where Carter grew up, the train depot that once headquartered his presidential campaign, his old high school and the city center to be upgraded from “historic sites” to a “national historic park.” The Jimmy Carter National Historical Park would also one day include the home where the 96-year-old and his wife, Rosalynn, reside today. After they pass away, the park would expand to include their burial site. Carter thanked lawmakers for backing the change. “No matter where life has taken me, from the Governor’s Mansion to the White House, Plains has always been my home,” he said, adding that both he and his wife thanked the Georgia congressional delegation “for helping preserve my family’s legacy.”

Pascal

Carter