Pedro Pascal on the Importance of Blind Casting

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Pedro Pascal on the Importance of Blind Casting

The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal has spoken about the importance of blind casting in Hollywood productions.

What did Pedro Pascal say about blind casting?

Pascal spoke with Variety about casting and how limiting characters to specific racial identities can be constraining for a story. He noted that even though “people get so butthurt” about that sort of thing, it’s “the coolest way of moving the needle.”

“I think that the change is really important and that the best way to continue representation is exactly as you put it — just casting a person into a role that isn’t … not limiting a character to its racial identity,” Pascal explained. “Especially if it’s an IP that we’re familiar with or a book — and people get so butthurt about this stuff, but who cares? Because that is the coolest way of like moving the needle, is being open about the casting in every way … I think that we need to continue discovering it [representation] and making sure that we understand that representation is in service of telling a story, instead of fulfilling a political frustration, which its totally legit also. 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 change.”

The Last of Us currently stars Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna as Tommy Miller, and Rutina Wesley as Maria. Season 2 is expected to be based on Naughty Dog’s acclaimed video game sequel The Last of Us Part II, which will feature a significant time jump introducing a now grown-up Ellie.

Season 1 also featured Nico Parker, Anna Torv, Melanie Lynskey, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, and Storm Reid. It also included guest-star appearances from the original video game’s actors Jeffrey Pierce, Merle Dandridge, Troy Baker, and Ashley Johnson as new characters.

The series is executive produced and co-written by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and original game writer Neil Druckmann, who is also serving as one of the directors. It is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television in association with PlayStation Productions. Executive producers are Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog President Evan Wells, and PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan.

Season 1 is now available for streaming on Max.