Pedro Pascal recently joined the SmartLess podcast and divulged on how his family immigrated from Chile, though it is more akin to a story of escape.
LISTEN NOW: Smartless: Pedro Pascal
Hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, the SmartLess podcast brought on another well known actor, Pedro Pascal, and all were full of quick jokes. “The internet has collectively referred to you as our daddy, and you embrace it… you got the scruff, the glasses” co-host Hayes teased. And he’s not wrong- After Pascal's Variety Fair lie detector interview went viral, the actor has become a silver fox heartthrob in line with Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Joe Manganiello. Known for his quick wit, humility, and of course, handsomeness, Pascal chuckled and responded, “I just want people to like me.” And while their conversation was full of laughter, the three comedians would be shocked to hear the details of Pedro’s upbringing when asking for his backstory.
Born in 1975 in Santiago, Chile, Pedro grew up under the forced rule of Augusto Pinochet, a military general turned brutal dictator. His family did not simply immigrate as the SmartLess hosts thought, but were forced to escape when being pursued by the military government.
“There was a cousin of my mother’s, who was very very involved in the opposition of the military regime, in proximity to our family,” he began. “I wouldn’t say that my parents were revolutionaries by any stretch of the imagination but they were young, liberal college students.” But this wasn’t nearly enough separation to keep them safe, as they had, as Pascal said, “close ties to the opposition” through family. When he was just 4 months old, his father was working in a doctorate program as a resident at their university hospital during a political fight. “There was a gunfight that my parents were not involved in, but somebody was wounded,” Pascal recalled. “And they brought him to my parent’s house so my father could help tend the wound, hide them for a while.”
However, one of the persons that brought the wounded to their family was arrested and forced to give up any names of those involved to the military authorities. This included his parents, which Pascal described was, “like some sort of political thriller from the eighties.”
“They came looking for my parents, and so then my parents had to go into hiding for about six months, as it’s been told to me.” From there, his parents decided to escape through the Venezuelan embassy, as he described that the guards took shifts. “There was this window where they could climb over the wall. Physically climb on the other side of the wall, and demand asylum. And it worked.”
After escaping Pinochet's dictatorship, his family eventually moved to Orange County in California until his parents were pardoned when Pascal was 8. From there, he lived on-and-off between the United States and in Chile, until ultimately studying at New York University. He explained that he shortened his name to Pedro Pascal and moved back to California to cement a career in acting, and that’s clearly worked as well. Nowadays Pedro Pascal is featured across multiple fan favorite shows such as Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian and The Last of Us, and he has no plans of stopping. His upcoming release, Strange Way of Life is a short film that director Pedro Almodóvar called his, “answer to Brokeback Mountain.” For Pascal, the 30-minute piece is a dream come true, as he said. “I felt so influenced by both of them in my upbringing.”
To hear the full retelling of his family’s bravery, complemented by some banter between actors, check out the full podcast episode on the free Audacy app here.
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