Pedro Pascal Admits That He Really Doesn’t Play The Mandalorian
In a roundtable discussion with other actors, Pedro Pascal reveals he does most of his work on The Mandalorian from a sound booth.
In a recent chat with other actors, Pedro Pascal revealed that much of his work on The Mandalorian is voiceover while another actor wears the Mando suit onscreen. The star of the popular Disney+ series sat down for a roundtable talk with fellow actors Jeff Bridges, Damson Idris, Michael Imperioli, Evan Peters, and Kieran Culkin to discuss their craft. In the course of the conversation, which appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, he revealed that he is often not onscreen in his starring role.
The revelation about Pedro Pascal’s lack of on-camera presence might not have been much of a surprise to some, as interviewer Lacey Rose was the one who brought up the subject during the conversation. Noting that the actor also currently has a role in HBO’s The Last of Us, Rose asked if she was correct that “presumably” he did not have to be on-set for The Mandalorian. Pascal confirmed that this is the case, which seemed to surprise some of his fellow actors at the table.
Of course, Pedro Pascal’s face is not visible most of the time as his character wears a helmet that covers his face. This allows the actor to perform his dialogue as voiceover while another actor handles the physical work of wearing the Mando suit. Of course, Mando isn’t always wearing his helmet, which does require Pascal to be on set, but things didn’t always work quite this way.
From the outset, showrunner Jon Favreau and producers knew Pedro Pascal could do some of his performance in voiceover, but just how much time he would spend in the recording booth was not always certain. In the roundtable interview, Pascal reveals that he wore the suit much more in the beginning of the series, but his body couldn’t handle the strain of the complicated, heavy costume for four months of shooting. There was, according to Pascal, “an extended amount of experimentation” to determine how often he was going to be replaced onscreen by another actor, for whom he would provide the vocal performance.
Now, Pedro Pascal says, a balance has been struck, and he is recording his voice for “a lot of it,” which allows him to pursue other projects like The Last of Us and the upcoming Gladiator 2. For his part, Succession star Kieran Culkin feigned a sense of betrayal at the revelation, joking he had thought Pascal was “really good,” only to discover it was “all a lie!” Pascal quipped back that now Culkin knew the actor in the suit was the good one, to which Culkin replied, “Let’s get him in here!”
Good-natured ribbing aside, Perdo Pascal is glad to be performing his most famous role the way he is, telling Cullkin he thinks it’s “great” and that letting another actor handle the physical movements in many of the scenes allows him to let go of the process a bit, not having to control every move the character makes. Bridges then remarks that, as film actors, they are “part of a collage,” a metaphor with which Pascal agrees. To be part of that collage, he says, “you really have to give it all up.”
Of course, we still love Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian. After all, perhaps Star Wars‘ most iconic character, Darth Vader, was voiced by an actor who did not appear onscreen, as was Mando’s progenitor, Boba Fett. In that sense, Pascal is part of a grand Star Wars tradition.
