TALKING 2020 AND ‘WONDER WOMAN 1984’WITH PEDRO PASCAL
IENDED 2020 with an assignment I was incredibly lucky to get. It lifted my spirits at a time of witnessing collective loss, experiencing separation from loved ones and having our lives and plans turned upside down. It was also a time when so many of us had become acutely aware of what matters most — connectedness, relationships, our health and the health of those we hold dear, having a sense purpose and contributing something to a world that was being re-shaped.
The assignment was a yearender, holiday feature on actor
Pedro Pascal who is Maxwell Lord in “Wonder Woman 1984.”
As we all know, cinemas did not open in Metro Manila over Christmas 2020. Nor did they open in
January 2021. And with our Covid numbers for active cases, daily new case counts and deaths higher than ever, “Wonder Woman 1984” is only arriving legally on our home screens via HBO Go today.
Pedro Pascal, continues to be fascinating and relevant even four months after this piece was supposed to be printed.
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Most of us took notice of the Chilean-American actor in the exciting and outstanding fourth season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” where he played Oberyn Martell aka The Red Viper. I was hoping they would change his storyline so he would be on the show longer. He then went on to play Agent Javi Peña in the series “Narcos” and Agent Whiskey in “Kingsman: The Golden Circle.” And despite being hidden beneath a helmet most of the time, he is well-loved as “The Mandalorian.”
Over the pandemic, he became Inigo Montoya for the D.I.Y. version of “The Princess Bride,” did a piece called “For All the Lovesick Mad Geniuses” for the #24 Viral Monologues project and was part of the “Community” table read on YouTube.
A quick trip to his Instagram account (@pascalispunk) saw him advocating for masks, staying safe, contributing to relief funds (Robin Hood) and feeding programs (World Central Kitchen). He also spoke up on Reparations, supported Black Lives Matter and Pride. And while most followers showered him with love and thanks, he also got the odd messages like #CancelPedroPascal and “You need Jesus” and other unprintable things. I personally did check in with Jesus while researching for this article and he only had good things to say about his friend, Pedro.
On the first Monday of December last year, I excitedly went on a Zoom room to meet Pedro. To be honest, it was the second time I met him. I ran into him in 2014 in Central Park as he was making his way to the Delacorte Theater to perform Shakespeare in the Park’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” His last major foray into Shakespeare was 2019’s “King Lear” on Broadway with the legendary Glenda Jackson.
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Pedro Pascal describes his “Wonder Woman 1984” role, Maxwell Lord, as “Gordon Gecko without the polish.” He kept talking about Oliver Stone’s 1987 film “Wall Street” and the iconic character Michael Douglas played. When he discussed this with director Patty Jenkins, she agreed, “It could be the right look, but he’s not cool.”
To which he thought, “Oh, perfect, that’s so much better for me. I don’t have to pretend to be cool again.”
He added, “The thing that I loved the most about Max Lord is he’s not a fighter, his shirt doesn’t come off, he doesn’t have good moves so I got to eat whatever I wanted and always justify it. I remember they were teaching me a boxing sequence and by the end of a two-hour fight rehearsal, I was ‘You realize my character does not know how to fight.’ The stunt coordinator goes ‘What?’”
Here’s some of the other topics we discussed via Zoom.
What would Maxwell Lord’s favorite ‘80s band be?
It’s funny you ask this because when I thought about Max Lord, because he’s my age in 1984, that would mean, the influencing era of his life would not be the ‘80s. It would be a couple of decades earlier so I was listening to a lot of classic rock.
I found him to be someone who might have romanticized the ‘50s a little bit and then I think as far as the ‘80s is concerned, I think he was listening to a lot of Billy Idol. Secretly.
What does he sing in the shower to get pumped before facing the day?
At the clubs, at the clubs, he’s going to the clubs. And he’s dancing to “Rebel Yell,” you know?
[Unfortunately, part of the agreement for this Zoom interview is I only get sent an audio file. The audio obviously does not capture my attempt at doing the signature Billy Idol “Rebel Yell” sneer and fist pump, and Mr. Pascal destroying me at my own game by doing it but way better.
Also, oddly enough, three days after this, I randomly met and chatted with the bassist who went on tour with Billy Idol. But that’s another story.
Another classic ‘80s song we brought up was Prince’s ‘Purple Rain.’ In the virtual group press conference done earlier, director n
Patty Jenkins mentioned “Little Red Corvette” saying, “I remember being so obsessed with that song. I was also coming of age… What is this magic?” She associated it with “attraction,” “hotness,” “edge” and “coolness.” Pascal wanted to “honor some Prince with Patty” saying “Purple Rain is literally the song that I lived by.”
One of the ways he actually showed his love for the Prince classic and advocating for safety was by showing off his very cool Purple Rain mask on IG. Talk about “intersectional.”]
What movies do you think he’d be watching in the ‘80s?
I'm thinking he's a Rocky guy? Rocky 4? Rocky 4," definitely. Let’s stay in the Sylvester Stallone realm. Say the Rocky movies and the Rambo movies and maybe throw in a little Terminator.
How are you feeling at the end of 2020?
Watching your work and seeing your IG posts have helped me get through it — thank you. This year has broken our hearts in so many ways and also inspired us in terms of the level of resilience that we have, and to be kind of in an experience collectively in many, many different ways. Mine is indescribably privileged in that I am safe — my friends and family are safe — and it’s not that way for hundreds of thousands of people. It hurts.
So many of us are figuring out how to get from one hour to the next, much less one day or one week or whatever, and that being said, to think that I could be associated with anything that may alleviate maybe even for a little bit some of the despair that we’re all going through, or even just to provide a little of inspiration or hope is an honor I can’t even put words to.
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While not everyone warmed up to “Wonder Woman 1984” the same way they did to 2017’s storyline, I still liked it enough as a “Christmas movie” with its colors and levity and message about truth and being careful what you wish for. Even if it did sound hokey. Wonder Woman remains a very unique light in the current DC Extended Universe.
As Pedro put it, “Wonder
Woman resonates with so many people because at the forefront of it all is humanity and hope and compassion. There’s fierceness and empowerment but there’s a kind of humor and it’s met with gentleness. She fights for the gentle hearted and she puts her body and her powers between that which is trying to attack the most vulnerable, that’s a very emotional thing.
“It isn’t just oh badass hero-ey it’s emotion. I remember seeing Gal’s and Patty’s first ‘Wonder Woman’ and being moved to tears when she stepped into Noman’s Land and started to fight. It was emotional action and whether we want to admit it or not, it’s what we all want.”
Going back go Max Lord, Pedro said the scariest thing about doing the movie was playing a character that is closer to him “at least energetically.” For Lord, it’s an energy that “exposes desperation.”
“Instead of brood with mustache, it was expose, expose, expose and I had to use a lot of myself to do what Patty wanted and so it was really scary.”
In response, the lady director noted, “Maxwell Lord in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ is an incredible creation and personification of an era that sells the dream of success and frames it in a very specific way: at any cost, get what you want.
Except that getting what you want is never enough and it’s a constant pursuit of more, more, and more, which is so well represented in the era I grew up in frankly, and it’s the terrifying face of potential and getting whatever it is you set your eyes on.
“Thankfully because of the people behind making this version of Maxwell Lord, it’s not a two dimensional experience, although the villainy of greed could be so black and white. Somehow, they find a way of surprising you with this character.”
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Along with finally seeing Pedro Pascal in “Wonder Woman 1984” you can also catch him in the new Netflix docuseries, “Amend.” It’s a compelling history and civics class anchored by Will Smith, with Pedro, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Diane Lane and Mahershala Ali (among others) reading and reciting from texts and speeches relevant to the 14th Amendment in the US. Diana of Themyscira would be proud.
Forward-looking, besides “The Mandalorian” season 3, Pedro’s upcoming projects include “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” with Nicholas Cage, Judd Apatow’s “The Bubble” (about actors and actresses at a hotel trying to complete a film over the pandemic) and “The Last of Us” for HBO.