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This is fresh air. I'm Tanya Mosley. If you've watched TV, gone to the movies, or even glanced at a bus stop ad in the past year,

you've probably seen Pedro Pascal staring back at you. This summer alone, his face has

been splashed across posters and billboards for the Fantastic Four First Steps, Eddington, and

Celine's Song's, Materialists. He's also gearing up for Avengers Doomsday, and that's on top of an Emmy

nomination for his role as Joel and HBO's The Last of Us. In the past decade, Pascal has

become one of Hollywood's most magnetic leading men, often playing reluctant protectors, like in the

Mandalorian and The Last of Us, who find family in the

unlikeliest of places. That connection between found family on screen and his own life came

into sharp focus during his Saturday Night Live monologue in 2023, when he credited his parents

for making sacrifices to bring him to the United States from South America,

a journey that began with political exile and helped shape a career defined in part by portraying outsiders finding their way in.

That combination of personal history and on-screen vulnerability has made him something rare in Hollywood,

a star that people feel like they know.

A recent New Yorker cartoon captured it perfectly. A therapist tells a client, it's not strange at all. Lately, a lot of people are reporting that their faith in humanity is writing entirely

on whether or not Pedro Pascal is as nice as he seems.

Pedro Pascal, welcome to Fresh Air.

You will have to assess and share with everybody whether this is true, I suppose.

Well, I think we're getting off to a great start.

Congratulations on your Emmy nomination.

It's a really big deal for you. Oh, gosh, thanks very much. Thank you.

Well, let's talk about The Last of Us. So I want to get folks up to speed if they don't know it. The Last of Us is based on this hit video game set in this post-apocalyptic America overrun by this fungal outbreak that turns people into the deadly infected.

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