The first look at Pedro Pascal’s gay Western is here, and fans are losing it: ‘Camp homo realness!’
Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal in ‘intimate’ queer Western Strange Way of Life. (Iglesias Más)
The first look at Pedro Pascal’s “intimate” queer Western Strange Way of Life has landed, and fans have a lot of feelings.
Helmed by renowned, gay director Pedro Almodóvar, Strange Way of Life stars man of the moment Pascal as a gunslinging cowboy named Silva, who travels on horseback across the desert to find old friend and sherif Jake, played by BOYHOOD actor Ethan Hawke.
Oscar winner Almodóvar has previously described the short film as his version of Brokeback Mountain, but potentially with all the graphic sex scenes the original skimped on.
Now, the film’s official poster is out in the world, featuring Pascal and Hawke looking straight ahead, their weapons cocked and loaded.
While the pair are stood against a mountainous, desert background, their get-ups aren’t explicitly Western, bar Hawke’s sheriff badge. However, fans are concluding that it’s a subtle nod to Joan Crawford in the 1954 Western Johnny Guitar.
Other photos released from the film include a shot of the pair shaking hands as they reunite for the first time, and Hawke standing behind Pascal, with both actors looking slightly perturbed.
It’s a tiny snapshot into the film, and Almodóvar is still remaining tight-lipped on how the plot progresses. Regardless, fans are very much here for the teaser, however small.
“If this poster doesn’t make the movie at least 30 per cent more interesting to you, you’re just wrong,” wrote one fan.
“Brokeback Mountain but make it camp,” another said, while a third simply summarised: “Gay rights!”
Everything we know about Strange Way of Life
Almodóvar hasn’t disclosed exactly what will happen between yeehaw buddies Pascal and Hawke, but he has dropped some pretty hefty hints.
With the legendary director making comparisons to Brokeback Mountain, we can very much assume this is a gay love story.
“The story is very intimate,” he said in an interview with IndieWire, when he was asked whether the two characters become romantically involved. “I mean, masculinity is one of the subjects of the movie.”
Speaking to Dua Lipa on her At Your Service podcast, he went even further, saying: “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.”
Giddy up indeed.
Pedro Pascal, who is fresh from the rave reviews of HBO’s apocalyptic thriller The Last of Us, recently unveiled why he was desperate to take part in the “intoxicating” queer film.
“[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 to Insider, adding that he would have done whatever Almodóvar wanted “without question”.
He was also motivated by the opportunity to work with Hawke, whose work Pascal has admired since he “was a little kid”.
Strange Way of Life will receive its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival next month (16 May), before heading to cinemas later this year.
The film, which is Almodóvar’s second English language film after 2020’s The Human Voice, will also star Elite‘s Manu Ríos.
