Pedro Pascal is looking back on the early days of The Last of Us.
If you’ve been keeping up with HBO’s newest smash hit Sunday night horror/drama, you’ll know Pedro has been fighting his way through a zombie apocalypse as the show’s lead, Joel. With a mind-blowing 6.4 MILLION same-day viewers on the most recent episode, the video game adaptation has now permeated popular culture, with episode three being dubbed on social media “one of the best episodes of television” of all time. Now, amidst all the hype, Pedro is opening up about the streamer’s early stages, and how he almost wasn’t in it! Or at least… that’s what he thought!
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On Thursday night’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 47-year-old dished on a late-night Zoom call with showrunners, Chernobyl‘s Craig Mazin and video game creator Neil Druckmann:
“That was a really strange circumstance, I was actually in London and everyone else was in Los Angeles. And I got sent these scripts and said — I was told that ‘Craig Mazin wants you to read the scripts. And if you like them, he’d like to talk to you.’ I loved Chernobyl. The miniseries that he — show ran for HBO.”
He continued:
“I read the first script, and I was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah I want to meet him I want to meet him.’ And we talked, and we fell in love. And they were like, ‘Will you stay up a little bit’ — At this point, it was getting kind of late in London to talk to Neil Druckmann, the creator of the video game. Genius. Brilliant guy.”
The Chilean-born actor added:
“[I] stay up for that Zoom. We all fall in love again. And then, at that point, it’s really late. I’ve got to get up in the morning. I take an Ambien to go to sleep just in case — they’ve got my adrenaline kind of going and my hopes up. But I get a call, and I get told that I got the job after I took the Ambien.”
However, the sleeping aid made him so drowsy he had no recollection of the exciting news!
“I was excited, I guess, but I don’t remember.”
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He explained of the following day:
“I woke up in the morning. And the first thing that occurred to me, was like, ‘Oh, man, I really want that job. And I’m in London. They’re in L.A. I’m going to wait by the phone all day long. This hasn’t happened in a while, you know. I’m going to be longing. And I’m going to think about it all day long.’”
Little did he know that he had already landed the gig! He eventually realized the news after checking his cell phone to find a, “Congratulations. So happy for you,” message. He joked, “Oh yeah I got the job!” Ha! See his full interview (below):
What a whirlwind of events! It’s all worth it now, as he garners more and more fan acclaim every Sunday when the show airs on HBO Max at 9:00 p.m. ET. And don’t miss his return as The Mandalorian, which begins streaming season three on Disney+ March 1!
What do YOU think of Pedro’s Ambien-fueled hiring process for The Last of Us, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments down below!
[Images via NBC & HBO/YouTube]
The post Pedro Pascal Took Ambien & FORGOT He Was Cast In <i>The Last Of Us</i>! appeared first on Perez Hilton.