Hollywood Actor Gives 'Two Cents' On Race And Sex-Swapping Roles

The seasoned actor, known for performing in blockbuster shows such as "Game of Thrones" and "The Mandalorian," participated in a candid interview with Variety, offering his take on the issue.

The dialogue around casting diverse actors in roles traditionally occupied by specific ethnicities or genders has been a hot topic. Significant productions like the Broadway musical "Hamilton" have stirred conversation by casting Black and Latino actors as America's Founding Fathers. At the same time, King George, the antagonist of the piece, was portrayed by a white actor. Furthermore, a backlash followed the recent Disney live-action interpretation of the Danish fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" and Netflix's portrayal of Cleopatra as Black, the latter receiving legal heat for "erasing the Egyptian identity."

During his discussion with Variety, Pascal communicated his belief that all roles should be potentially open to interpretation regarding race or gender. The interviewer raised the question of whether Pascal felt the wave of change in the industry, where he could exist simply as Pedro Pascal, the actor, as opposed to "Pedro Pascal the Latino guy that we have for Latino roles."

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In response, Pascal emphasized the importance of the change, stating the necessity to focus on "just casting a person into a role" rather than restricting a character to a fixed racial identity. He addressed the furor that often ensues when famous characters in well-known intellectual properties change identity.

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"Especially if it's an IP that we're familiar with or a book. And people get so butthurt about this kind of stuff, but who cares? Because that is the coolest way of moving the needle, is being open about the casting in every way," Pascal said.

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Pascal also shared his perspective on introducing originality into casting, imagining scenarios where traditional character roles could be reversed. However, he cautioned against the potential pitfalls of forcing representation to satiate "political frustration" rather than serving the narrative.

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"Instead of being like 'these are the instructions, this is how we need to follow it… let's label what representation is and follow those…' No, I think that we need to continue discovering it and making sure that we understand that representation is in service of telling the story instead of fulfilling a political frustration, which is totally legit also," he added.

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Pascal concluded his thoughts on the issue by acknowledging the complexity of navigating representation and diversity in film and TV. "It's a very interesting thing to navigate, and I think that it deserves all the attention in the world so that we do navigate it, and that the needle does move, and that things do kind of like change."

As Hollywood grapples with the issue of representation and diversity, Pascal's words add another influential voice to the conversation, underscoring the importance of storytelling in casting decisions.