Pedro Pascal explains why he jumped at the chance to star in new ‘intoxicating’ queer Western
Pedro Pascal is set to play a queer gunslinging cowboy in Strange Way of Life. (Getty/Matt Winkelmeyer)
The internet’s boyfriend Pedro Pascal is a booked, busy man, but it’s his upcoming Western Strange Way of Life that has queer fans in a chokehold.
Pascal, 48, will be riding into the role of Silva, a gunslinging cowboy, while Dead Poets Society star Ethan Hawke will play Sheriff Jake. The pair have a romantic history, and according to the film’s director Pedro Almodóvar, it all gets quite intimate.
Speaking to Insider on Thursday (6 April), Pascal revealed why he was so keen to take on the role, despite already having a pretty packed schedule with The Last of Us season two and The Mandalorian in his diary.
According to the Game of Thrones star, accepting the role was “without question,” thanks to the fact Almodóvar was sat in the director’s chair.
“[Almodóvar] absolutely opened up an entire world of storytelling, colour, culture, rebellion and sexuality that was just absolutely intoxicating, dangerous, hilarious, heartbreaking and encompassing the whole spectrum, but with such a signature style,” Pascal gushed.
“It could have been anything that he asked me to do, and I would have done it without question.”
Almodóvar, who is openly gay, is best known for his Oscar-winning films All About My Mother and Talk To Her. He has also won two Golden Globe awards and taken home five BAFTAs in his 50-year career.
In addition to the prospect of working with Almodóvar, Pascal was also won over by the fact that he would be working with Boyhood star Ethan Hawke.
“To get to work with Ethan, whose movies I’ve seen since I was a little kid, who I’ve seen on stage off-Broadway, on Broadway, whose books I’ve read, whose plays I’ve seen him direct and big movies, small movies, horror movies,” said Pascal, who is becoming increasingly known as one big fangirl.
“It was really an incredible opportunity to go, learn and to enjoy the experience of being on the level of people like that… Taking it all in was incredible.”
Everything we know about Strange Way of Life
Almodóvar has remained relatively tight-lipped on the full plot for Strange Way of Life, but what we do know is that Pedro Pascal’s Silva will ride on horseback through the dessert to find Sheriff Jake, after 25 years apart.
In an interview with IndieWire, the legendary director made it pretty obvious that their relationship is far more than friendly, describing the film as his version of Brokeback Mountain.
“The story is very intimate,” he said, suggesting that there is romance involved. “I mean, masculinity is one of the subjects of the movie.”
In the same interview, he explained that he was offered the chance to direct the actual Brokeback Mountain, but turned it down because he didn’t think Hollywood would allow him to film “two guys f*****g all the time”.
So, yeah, we might just see Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke getting a little close.
Speaking to Dua Lipa on her At Your Service podcast, Almodóvar reaffirmed the queer concept.
“This is a queer Western in the sense that there are two men, and they love each other, and they behave in that situation in an opposite way … It’s about masculinity in that deep sense.”
Give it up for queer cowboys.
The 30-minute short film will open at Cannes Film Festival next month (16 May), and will also star Elite’s Manu Ríos.
