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In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (out April 22), Pedro Pascal plays Javi, a crime boss and Nicolas Cage super-fan who pays the Oscar-winner $1 million to attend his birthday party.

"Nicolas Cage was amazing to work with," says Pascal of his costar, who plays a version of himself in the movie. "He helped me remember how much you need to care about the work. He just brought the best out of me. There were many instances where he did something that was just so funny and so unexpected and yet so familiar because I had seen him do such interesting wild takes. To be in a scene with him and to see him do these things, it was very special."

Pedro Pasca Pedro Pascal | Credit: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

Given the nature of the movie's plot, it is no surprise that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent features abundant references to some of Cage's many well-known movies, from Face/Off to Croods 2. But Pascal's filmography is not lacking in famous projects either. The actor talks about his appearances in Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, and more, below.

Game of Thrones (2014)

Pascal got his big break playing the doomed Oberyn Martell on season 4 of HBO's fantasy show.

"Game of Thrones was this incredible, ideal experience really of getting to play this beautifully written, iconic character who has a big in and a big out in one very, very solid season of the series," says Pascal. "All I can really say is, I had the time of my life and I wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for that role."

Pascal visited the site where he shot his character's demise while filming The Unbearable Weight of Massive talent.

"We were shooting in Dubrovnik spitting distance away from that arena where I got my skull crushed-in," he says. "I got to revisit it around the same time of year that we shot that Game of Thrones [episode]. It was like a full circle for me."

Bloodsucking Bastards (2015)

Director Brian James O'Connell's film is an office comedy with a difference. The difference being that Pascal plays a sales manager who also happens to be a vampire.

"Bloodsucking Bastards was the first thing that I did after I shot Game of Thrones," says the actor. "A lot of the conversations that I've [had concerning Massive Talent are] questions around feeling new to comedy and broadening my horizons. But Bloodsucking Bastards was a dip into very broad comedy. I had a really great time working with Fran Kranz, who's an amazing actor and writer-director now. I guess, yeah, that was a little bit of a preview to what I'm doing now."

Narcos (2015-17)

In the massively popular Netflix show, Pascal played real-life DEA agent Javier Peña who investigated infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

"Narcos was an amazing experience," he says. "We got to shoot that in Colombia, which is a country that I love. It was all location-based. Yes, [it had] the DEA, chasing the cartel, and all those larger-than-life characters and stories, but what I feel most proud of is the Colombian crew and the locations that were captured. The earth of that country kind of emerged as the main character in such a beautiful way. I feel really proud of that. And I love grumpy Peña."

Triple Frontier (2019)

Pascal teamed with Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and pal Oscar Isaac for this action-thriller about former special forces operatives attempting to rob a crime lord.

"We were in Hawaii," says the actor. "I was with one of my best friends, Oscar Isaac, who made me live with him and his family, and we just had a really good time, being badasses in the jungle."

The Mandalorian (2019-TBD)

Executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni cast Pascal as the titular character, a bounty hunter tasked with tracking down what turns out to be an unbelievably cute "Baby Yoda."

"The Mandalorian is another job that has been a huge gamechanger for me," says the actor. "It's a completely unique creative experience and so much in the hands of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni in terms of how well it works, and how beautiful it looks, and how much people are connecting with it. I remember there was a moment when I kind of added a line at the start of the scene. It didn't end up in the final cut but I was with the Grogu, the child, and the child was curious about the fire coming out of like a piece of a jet. I said, 'Not too close,' and then the people operating the child reacted, so it was like the puppet was improvising with me. I was like, these people are really on top of it."

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

A longtime Nicolas Cage fan, Pascal channeled the out-there performance of the actor in 1988's Vampire's Kiss while portraying businessman Maxwell "Max Lord" Lorenzano in the DC movie.

"Wonder Woman 1984 is one of the most fun [times] I've had on a movie," he says. "Speaking of broad characters, there was a very important emotional center and a really good arc to the character, but there was a lot of comedy in there as well, which I loved sinking my teeth into. I remember shooting a scene in 1984 and, in the instant, I was like, what kind of energy do I need here? And I remembered Nicolas Cage — before I ever met him, before the thought of ever making Massive Talent existed — I remembered him jumping on the desk in Vampire's Kiss, kind of torturing María Conchita Alonso [who portrays a secretary at the company where Cage's character works]. I remembered that scene and his energy, and obviously not deciding to do that, but just wanting a fraction of that chaotic energy to make the scene that we were shooting that day work."

The Bubble (2022)

Pascal played lubricious movie star Dieter Bravo in Judd Apatow's semi-improvised comedy about a group of actors attempting to shoot a preposterous dinosaur movie during the pandemic.

"We were with this huge cast in a castle in England sort of telling the story basically about what we were experiencing and doing," he says. "It was also fun to come up with this really over-the-top narcissistic character. I got to choose my own costume, I curated the look of that character very specifically, with the bathrobe and the jewelry and the messy hair. That's where most of my writing came was the Crocs and the comfortable pajama pants and the rest was just being a passenger to the experience of an ensemble, which was a blast."

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