Pedro Pascal Breaks the Mold of the Modern Movie Star

Give or take some trigger-wrapped opinions about LGBTQ+ Safe Spaces here and Trump’s “f*cking mental” take on Joe Biden there, celebrities in 2023 understand better than ever before: just about every sentence is a potential hot take. Interviews are lawyered up and sanitized. Non-answers are the new answers. Publicists are essential, as is the abundance of caution when it comes to anything a celebrity might say or do in public. This is why Pedro Pascal stands out in a crowded field.

The award-winning actor has seen his profile rise dramatically over the past few years, thanks to the prominence of a few successful projects. Add in 11.6 million followers on Instagram, and Pascal now occupies a similar space to the other household names of Hollywood. But he’s not here to play the same cautious game. Whether publicly weighing in on social and political issues or quietly spotlighting nonprofits like Doctors Without Borders and The Trevor Project, Pascal is carving out a lane as a star who still sees a role for himself when it comes to using his platform.

It was on a recent promotional press run for his upcoming Marvel movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, that Pascal stopped in London to take a break from the hustle and media circuit to sit down with Sky News for a four-minute-and-two-second chat. Pascal, who had been bouncing from one reporter to the next, was candid about the state of celebrity media in a talk that ended up feeling like more than the usual clickbait-ready “hot takes” that dominate modern coverage.

“I think it's very easy to get scared, no matter what you sort of talk about,” Pascal told the outlet. “There are so many different ways that things can get kind of fractured and have a life of itself.”

The 50-year-old is right, of course. It’s been a long time since the 24-hour news cycle, and now a new algorithmically-augmented format means the media plays fast and loose with what celebrities say out in the wild. Rumors fly. Edits run rampant. Headlines steal from context and nuance, turning the substance of even the most innocuous interviews into something altogether different. For many in the public eye, that’s created a reluctance to say anything at all, let alone step out of the perceived safety of what’s been agreed upon by the powers-that-be on what a celebrity should be sharing with the world.

Pascal, who notched a surprisingly late career turn as an “overnight sensation” in Hollywood despite a lengthy filmography and a résumé that boasts everything from an Emmy-nominated role on Game of Thrones to an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, is no stranger to the conversations swirling around modern celebrity. But Pascal doesn’t let that fear shape his approach.

“There's one thing that you can say, and no matter what your intention behind it, it is lost in all of these different headlines, I suppose,” he told Sky. “But I'll never shut up.”

That might be the headline in itself. No artsy actor with perfect hair and an Instagram managed by a team of handlers would make such a promise in public, much less follow through. It’s the big, broad gesture versus the 10 small steps that Pascal himself alludes to in the interview. But it’s what the actor says in between those candid moments that tells the whole story. It’s the actions outside of acting that show Pascal is willing to live by those words. Whether it’s a “Protect The Dolls” T-shirt spotted during an off-duty trip or Instagram stories spotlighting the food blockade of Gaza or a glancing nod to the ban on drag shows in his home state of California, Pascal uses his position to remind people he’s here. He’s listening. He’s paying attention. And he’s not going to stop.

Which makes Pascal’s turn in The Fantastic Four: First Steps a little more remarkable still. Pascal plays Dr. Reed Richards, a man who shoulders both the power of the world’s mightiest beings while also tackling the old-fashioned demands of fatherhood for the first time with his wife, Sue Storm. The pressure is high for a man whose life has always been at the center of the universe, and it’s one Pascal, a star more commonly known for his screen presence than his box office clout, is primed to mirror.

Directed by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is part of the MCU in name only. Released in theaters just two weeks after the “official” start of Phase 5, the film arrives after an extensive effort to build a world and a cast that stands entirely on its own. Pascal and MCU newcomers like Vanessa Kirby (Diana), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Father), and Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm) elevate the title characters, allowing this origin story to double as a launchpad in a world devoid of direct connective tissue with any of the pre-existing installments.

Pascal’s casting as Reed Richards in particular is a stroke of genius. A man who’s smart enough to know that the power of emotions can help him make the best decision for himself and those closest to him, Pascal’s intellectual and emotional bandwidth now meets this preternaturally cerebral take on an age-old character. Richards is a man Pascal was born to play, with all of the present-day pressure and the inherited responsibility wrapped in one. Pascal, as with the rest of the cast, is given the space to play in between the established beats. A little more here. A little less there. Pascal, as Reed Richards, is grounded in reality while also pushing toward something greater.

The same can be said of Pascal himself, who embodies that same balance in the real world. Between blockbuster films, television, and everything in between, Pascal is a superstar who is nonetheless still following his beat. And that gives what he does the MCU space all the more gravity and heft.

After all, we’ve heard it all before from the usual suspects. Pascal is the one living the rhetoric, staring down a decade-plus of celebrity while also taking a different route when it comes to what he has to say about it in the world. If an actor with a CV and cachet this strong is unafraid to say something—and then be held accountable for it—then who is to say anyone else should?

When the world gets Pascal-sized again, which it almost certainly will, you can take it to the bank that we’ll be hearing more from the actor when it matters. He’s got a penchant for mixing it up that would put his characters in many of the same movies to shame. As always, Pascal is authentic in a way that seems as magical as it is relatable, a superhero who is quietly doing the heavy lifting that his character on screen has always been able to do with a snap of his fingers.

In a world where celebrities seem to be carefully muted more often than not, it’s refreshing to see Pascal make the exact opposite choice. He’s having the conversation that Hollywood is all-too-often silencing, and in the end, that’s what makes him…fantastic.