Pedro Pascal is playing the emotionally unavailable smuggler-turned-surrogate-dad Joel Miller in HBO’s The Last of Us series, and after years of playing father figures, it seems like the actor is ready to really lean into being a daddy as part of his brand.
Pascal, who recently made an appearance at the premiere for HBO’s TV adaptation of Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic game, was part of an interview with Entertainment Tonight earlier this week. In the interview, the actor was presented with an edited tweet by user @merrinluvr, who called him their “cool slutty father.”
After reading the tweet, Pascal confirmed that this is actually true. He’s a “cool, slutty daddy” for all of us.
Pascal has taken on several paternal roles in his time as an actor. Joel is, of course, at the front of everyone’s minds with The Last of Us having just begun airing at HBO this week. But the actor has also been known to play father figures in shows like The Mandalorian, in which he loves and protects a tiny Yoda gremlin, and Game of Thrones in which he played Oberyn Martell who, I mean, had a lot of children, at least. But in the past year or so, the actor is really playing up the daddy brand, and I, personally, am here for it.
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In a lie detector test interview with Vanity Fair, Pascal was asked who was the “bigger daddy” between himself and Moon Knight star Oscar Isaac. He said he was the “bigger daddy” and noted that he’s older than Isaac, but also admitted that Isaac is an actual father, which he is not.
While this is all in good fun, Pascal did also touch on the prospect of real-life fatherhood and why he likes to play dads in an interview with Wired. Pascal told the outlet he doesn’t know if he wants kids, but he likes “being able to imagine” fatherhood in roles like Joel. So it’s just like he tells Vanity Fair, “daddy is a state of mind,” and with Joel, it seems like he’s just cementing himself as the father figure the internet never had.
The Last of Us is one episode into its nine-episode run, and for more on that, be sure to check out Kotaku’s recaps as the season rolls out.
