Pedro Pascal Was Already A Game Of Thrones Fan Before He Walked Onto The Set

Before taking on his starring turn in "The Last of Us," Pedro Pascal already had another ultra-popular HBO series on his resume: "Game of Thrones."

In "Game of Thrones," Pascal played Oberyn Martell, the younger brother of the prince of Dorne. He and his romantic partner, Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma), show up in King's Landing for Joffrey Baratheon's (Jack Gleeson) wedding to Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer). However, it soon becomes clear that Oberyn has other intentions: he plans to seek revenge against the Lannisters for their role in the death of his sister.

Later, Oberyn serves as a judge at Tyrion Lannister's (Peter Dinklage) trial, as he has been accused of killing Joffrey (who was poisoned at his own wedding), and Oberyn is the only one to suspect that Tyrion is innocent. When Tyrion must compete in a trial by combat against Gregor Clegane (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson), aka The Mountain, who is acting as Cersei's (Lena Headey) champion, Oberyn volunteers to step in for Tyrion — thus leading to one of the most gruesome "Game of Thrones" death. After flooring the Mountain, Oberyn tries to get him to admit to raping and killing his sister instead of killing him instantly — leading to the Mountain taking Oberyn down and slowly gouging out his eyes (while admitting to the rape and murder that Oberyn was asking of him).

It's a memorable character and performance amongst fans. And, as it turns out, Pascal was already a fan of the show himself before taking on the role.

In 2014, the year that Pedro Pascal had his seven-episode run in Season 4 of "Game of Thrones," the actor participated in an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit, during which he discussed his time on the show. One fan noted that they'd heard Pascal was also a fan of the show and asked what his favorite part of the experience playing Oberyn was.

Pascal wrote, "I've never had an experience like this where I got to be a part of something that I was already aware of as a fan. And the experience of being on-set for the first time was really surreal and a little overwhelming because even if you didn't know anything about GoT, if you showed up to work on it you'd still be so impressed and wonder how this could possibly be a TV show because it feels so epic when you're doing it." The actor explained that he often felt like pinching himself because he couldn't believe he was working with such amazing actors and getting to be apart of such an important storyline. He added, "It never really let up, there was never a point of adjustment, I never landed completely. I was kind of in awe of it throughout."

Pascal then praised the cast some more, specifically calling out Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, and his on-screen love interest, Indira Varma. He also praised the creators, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and credited them with allowing him to have such a fulfilling experience.

In 2020, Pedro Pascal sat down with GQ to break down the most iconic characters of his career thus far — and, of course, "Game of Thrones" came up. Pascal began by explaining that each season of "Game of Thrones" is filmed like a long movie, meaning that you may shoot a scene for, say, Episode 7 before shooting a scene for Episode 2. Because of this, it meant that Pascal had to film a dialogue-heavy scene with Peter Dinklage — the scene in which Oberyn recounts meeting Tyrion as a baby before volunteering to be Tyrion's champion in the trial by combat — on his first day. He refers to Dinklage as one of the best actors in the world — meaning that he was a bit nervous when that day came around.

Pascal said, "Do I have to describe what that felt like? I was terrified, and it was amazing. It was just very surreal because I was also stepping onto the set of a show that I was obsessed with." He continued by stating that they had a rehearsal the day before, where he got a glimpse into what it was like to work with Dinklage.

The actor continued, "Peter Dinklage, I've seen him on stage, and he's an incredibly generous actor ... it was just sitting down and doing a scene with a pro over and over and over and over again."