In a recent interview for the Variety podcast, Pedro Pascal made his feelings very clear about diverse casting. Sitting opposite Clayton Davis, the Senior Awards Editor, they talked about representation and the shift of Hollywood taking more creative decisions that put underrepresented communities in the forefront. 

For Pascal, who plays Joel Miller in The Last of Us, “the best way of continuing representation is by casting a person into a role that is not limited to their racial identity.” He adds that this is the most effective way of “moving the needle” and that it is important to keep an open mind during casting. 

His words are especially important due to some initial pushback at Joel not originally being Latino. It’s also important due to, most recently, Halle Bailey receiving harsh criticism for her role as Ariel in The Little Mermaid to the point some were using the hashtag “Not my Ariel.”

For those critics, the ones who don’t understand that representation in the media we consume is a powerful tool to “move the needle,” Pascal basically said to get over it. “Especially if it’s an IP we are familiar with […] People get so butthurt about this kind of stuff but… who cares?”

He went on to say that even gender shouldn’t limit what roles actors can play. “I remember looking at a script and thinking ‘God, wouldn’t it be so’… there was this real sort of scary parental figure, it was written as a father. And then I thought, ‘God, wouldn’t it be interesting if it was a mother? If it was Diane Wiest?”

During the podcast, Pascal also talked about his admiration for Pedro Almodóvar and Ridley Scott. He’s working with Almodóvar on Strange Way of Life, the short film that made headlines for being a gay Western short film. And as for Scott, he’s working on the new Gladiator sequel. 

Almodóvar, he’s been a fan of since Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. And forming that connection felt like a dream come true. But there was something about “the idea of being on a set, one of Ridley Scott’s sets, three of his movies being in my top 10. And this is coming from a movie nerd” that made Pascal realize the direction his career is going in and the doors that have been opened to him.

“It is a little bit of an awkward experience sometimes because yeah I’m invited to the table and I’ve a seat at the table, and I ‘deserve to be here’ but the other part of me is like glitching out on […] impostor syndrome and just sort of like under the blanket of admiration.” If anything, this confession and interview just make Pedro Pascal even more relatable.

You can check out the full interview in the video below.