Do we like Pedro Pascal?
Our score: 8 out of 10. He has spoken up for trans people and migrants in his own words, and the record on how he treats people is good but thin.
Pascal's story starts with a dictatorship. He was born in Santiago in 1975, and by his own telling his parents hid for about six months after sheltering a gunshot victim, then climbed the walls of the Venezuelan embassy to seek asylum. He and his sister were sent to Denmark before being let into the US, which makes his refugee line less a talking point and more the family business.
That background shows up when he's asked about politics. At the Cannes press conference for Eddington in 2025 he said “I'm an immigrant. My parents are refugees from Chile.” He added he wasn't informed enough to answer fully on policy, but that he stands by protections for immigrants, and he told artists that “Fear is the way that they win.”
He backs it up in public. Star Observer reports he wore a “protect the dolls” shirt to the Thunderbolts premiere in London, and on a 2025 visit to Australia he told the trans community that they inspire fear in those afraid to be their true selves. He also signed a 2025 letter from more than 370 film people criticising the industry's silence on Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Where you land on that depends on whether you read it as a humanitarian appeal or as taking a side in a war.
The bad press is mostly internet noise. In 2025 anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen accused him of groping co-star Vanessa Kirby over a clip of his hand on her arm and hip. Star Observer reports there have been no public allegations of unwanted contact against him, and that the attack flopped. That's tabloid-adjacent territory, and nothing in the reporting we read backs it up.
On the human side, Sarah Paulson told the press she once gave him her per diem so he could eat when he was broke, and that she just wants him to succeed. That's one friend's story, so it's colour rather than a full character reference. Elsewhere he is pursuing a trademark case in Chile against a pisco brand called Pedro Piscal, which the brand's owner says is just a pun on grape and spirit; it's a bit precious, but it's a commercial fight, not a character flaw.
Nothing new and nasty has turned up lately, and nothing we could confirm from the reporting we opened. Ahead of this card the web was full of fan chatter about his Oscars look and about who he follows online, none of which tells us anything about whether he's decent. Honestly, that's the whole list.