Pedro Pascal & Steven Yeun | Actors on Actors

I have to say this because I started The Walking Dead when it premiered on AMC and I remember just noticing you and being like this is going to sound really obnoxious and like I'm trying to sign you or something like that but I was like yeah five percent yeah all right oh that's that's not bad and then we'll talk about today yeah [Music] yeah how much did you know about the last of us I didn't know about the game when they got in touch with me about the project I hadn't heard of it but I learned

like immediately what it was what the context was the first thing that came to me were just uh the scripts written by Craig Mason and I should have assumed that it was connected to some serious IP because the world was like immediately present and really rich and cool and I was like this story is amazing I saw a man killed his own brother to save her well I just watched and today I thought that dog was going to tear apart because it smelled something on her and my nephews were like it's a video

game you idiot it's amazing it's so amazing we have won't talk to you anymore it's I feel weirdly connected to you in multitude of ways but one is when I was shooting a show that is kind of spiritually connected to your show Walking Dead yeah I remember like I don't remember what season what it was but the game came out and I remember I played it 12 hours straight really down to that last like I don't know if you've played it but like part one yeah where he just you just push the characters for

ward as they're having that last beautiful scene you have are you serious yeah you just nothing happens you just walk through the forest you've told me more about the game than the creator of the video oh no it's beautiful I remember finishing it and then coming to set the next day being like like catatonic just like guys I just experienced something that's amazing yeah so you're saying that you get to a certain point but you still have to basically play but you're not fighting anything or looki

ng for anything you're just having them but you it's not a a scene in the in the video game you actually have to you have to control the person and you just walk through the forest you must have been imagining that in real time it was amazing that's really good yeah and then to and then to see you play that like you know um I'll pivot right now away from the thing because like for me I want to gush about you I think like you're so immense and incredible you fall into your characters in a way tha

t I think is so gracious is it the right word I'll take it I love the word gracious what a joy to have a scene partner that was immersed in the role and the moment and the space with you that those are the blessings where you're like yeah we're in and think about how scary it would have it it was frankly to know that you were going to go into an experience that was a 12-month kind of away from home experience with a teenager I came here to talk to you no way you're still here if you're gonna dit

ch me ditch me what exactly did you hear Bella Ramsey was incredible with you and like yeah you're like and I was like yeah I could tell she was cool I knew that she was casting the part before I was and I don't know how they knew how to put these sort of uh two pieces in place but I'm not surprised that it it started with um with Bella and I couldn't have asked for a more anchoring generous thoughtful teenager and I don't mean to say that in a patronizing way but it's just the way it is you kno

w yeah yeah they had their 18th birthday wow while we were shooting and that just could have sucked I know what you mean if there's like any type of not groundedness there maturity there yeah they're more grounded than anyone would deserve them to be in a way you know um I relied on Bella for so much of the experience and it was weird because it was easy for us to kind of focus on what we were meant to fulfill and the kind of chemistry we were supposed to have yeah yeah and we both really sort o

f scared and and shy about that but I guess like Bella just inspired me to be mature about it psychologically in a way I know what you mean because like sometimes these questions asked of you like did you have the best time with your co-star yeah and you're like I'm gonna tell you like the version that you probably want to hear which is like yes I did but like there's the other version which is like you're experiencing this thing together that has like levels to it totally and sometimes someone'

s gonna come in in a subconscious way or in a conscious way with a specific mood and you're going to have a mood and you're just work you're working together yeah and I don't think you can pull out the performances that you'll pulled out together between you two you have to have a full range of experience together that last frame when she's looking at you to see if you're telling the truth yeah it's crazy yeah and that's a whole journey lived together yeah all all shades yeah that's badass yeah

it was cool I will say that I really don't think I've met anybody like Bella in that I was truly sort of inspired and humbled but they brought the best out of me as a person and that is the journey that Joel goes on I know I hate to give it to them but like I mean and the symbiosis is you know they have their own you know you know growth from that experience too that's why this stuff is so strange to me sometimes like yeah you work with like a deer or something or like an animal or like a like a

young young child and it's so scary because you're like they'll tell you if you're fake every time if you're a liar like they'll tell you every time yeah that's gnarly can I ask about ali yeah because ultimately in the most fulfilling way your characters are uh sharing the screen and a part for so much of it how much proximity did you have with one another through the experience before you actually had to confront each other as characters we worked on tangential things we did tucum Birdie toget

her but we never were in the same room um we didn't even do like a big press tour because Tucan birdie was mostly her and Tiffany haddish Ali was just someone that I always kind of like looked I remember when our first special came out baby cobra I was like whoa who is this person and especially for an Asian-American voice I was like yo we needed you so bad yeah and I remember reaching out to her and we connected here and there but we never really hung out or talked to each other much what's rea

lly fun about ali is that she is my inverse in a lot of ways and you know when we were approaching shooting this I would always notice that like we kind of had like different entry points for the same thing but we would end up at the same place and I was like oh this is going to be really interesting yeah and uh a very yin-yang situation all your hard work paid off right you're fulfilled why do you care I just want to know if I gotta get to where you are I think a more naive less experienced ver

sion of myself younger I would have like tried to force some sort of chemistry or like let's hang out and let us do the thing but there was this level of professionalism there too that that that felt like Ali was going to take care of her side I was gonna take care of my side and then every time we come together there's going to be this like interesting tension yeah and uh we weren't doing anything like method things because like in between takes what I love about ali is she'll like pull you asi

de pull out mics and just like talk [ __ ] yeah and like not about people but just like talk [ __ ] yeah and that's [ __ ] about people oh yeah we were talking [ __ ] talking [ __ ] we were talking mostly [ __ ] about people um but like creating that environment that frankly I will not personally used to uh I experienced that type of environment on Walking Dead and then afterwards I kind of like maybe they're connected to this is the first episodic uh television that you've done since The Walkin

g Dead yeah which like in some ways TV like you do have to submit to family yeah right you're just there for a long time yeah whereas film I feel like you can kind of like live in your isolation and leave right [Music] it really is brilliant writing because the two opposing figures of your show finally end up you know in nature together on nature yeah where was it on the schedule did you guys was it towards the end so the schedule was gnarly because we block shot most of the thing and so you're

sitting there like one day is like I'm doing a scene from episode five eight and two and I'm like what the hell is happening on a day on a day oh man but the thing was is it kept us honest and sunny Lee sung Jin our writer and Creator he wrote something airtight yeah you could just enter in and like it works but episode 10 we shot don't even tell by itself okay we got we got to say like this is just for episode 10. and uh Sunny directed it we're in the process of shooting was it it was at the ve

ry end okay yeah yeah we like saved it for the end that's smart yeah it translates right yeah and we just had a time yeah we had a great time and it's so dropped in at that point in a way that it has to be for the story yeah I'm begrudgingly giving it to the writers yeah because when I said that I hate to give it to them I wasn't talking about Bella I was talking about the creators of the show yeah yeah but yeah getting them super sick and high together was like bringing them to their knees in a

way that total submission total submission like physic out of the ass out of the mouth out of the mind out of the heart submission yeah was really the only way it could go and it was so well it mirrors for me I look at that your finale in the same way leading you know having known the story like leading to this you know I'm I'm doing this for a reason I have a mission I have a goal you're just tagging along or I have to do I have to deliver this good and then to like take that whole Arc and lan

d it in that last episode and then like make that turn where you become conscious of what they're gonna do was amazing and you haven't seen it you crushed it I haven't seen it you [ __ ] crushed it or you crushed it hell yeah congrats thanks man but yeah like you can see the lived in it didn't feel like chummy it felt very lived in we both have good finales yeah [Laughter] I'll take your word for it yeah excellent I saw it all up until it's just this bizarre I haven't done anything for that amou

nt of time before and so my attachment to the experience is something and it's a strange thing kind of later you know as a guy who's pushing 50 like to feel this very very kind of like innocent semi-angry um emotional attachment to an experience that is over you know it continues I understand but like there will never be another sort of like meeting Bella for the first time working Craig working with Craig with the entire crew my friend Coco who did my hair and and the whole sort of like family

experience of it which we've had in the past but this was something that I haven't been able to let it go in a weird way and I don't like getting kind of emotional uh about work I I think a lot of effort will go into a kind of sort of a Detachment because the Practical issue is is that you you never know what's going to happen yeah things change different people different places one thing to the next you know and this one has been like is different yeah and that could just be because it was 12 [

 __ ] months it could be and it also could be I relate to you in what you're talking about as coming over here feeling like an outsider yeah living in the Gap like seeing still yeah same like I'm I'm on this Gap Rail and I can't leave and experiencing life from that place and the humanity that comes from that place and then in that same way you know I got to experience Walking Dead where like the luckiest thing for me is if I had been on a show I think especially at that time as an Asian America

n actor where it was rendered the show was rendered in the world we know I would have had a slot there was a slot for me yeah but we got to experience it in a world that was completely devastated and Society was broken and so there was no rules like Reinventing it Reinventing and our cast all the time we'd be like none of us would be friends in real life right in this in a world that wasn't broken yeah yeah but we're all like deeper friends now I still I'm so deeply connected to all the people I

I experienced that show with and I wonder if you're touching a similar thing yeah with a post-apocalyptic world yeah yeah yeah you see people for people at that point yeah and that is that's pretty funny there is like a crossover energy you know in terms of what the narrative is and like totally and what your brain's relationship to the experience is because the crew we were all just so close and was that deeply healing for you or same I feel that it was yeah and like we all kind of fell in lov

e I think it was like falling in love Yeah I have to say this because I started The Walking Dead when it premiered on AMC and I remember just noticing you and being like this is going to sound really obnoxious and like I'm trying to sign you or something like that thank you five percent yeah oh that's that's not bad and then we'll and then we'll talk about that yeah yeah but I was like that guy's a star and to engage your attention in something that is such a world it's such a genre and it could

have been sort of like the the character could have just easily worked without somebody who the camera just drinks in and is like so charismatic um so starting there I've I've just been kind of um unsurprised and drinking it in their their surprise thereafter yeah I appreciate it I don't know if this is what it feels like for you but like the journey continues to be a self-effacing one in a way like that's kind of what I mean by your graciousness is that I don't see judgment in your performance

I see I see like real love in your performance when I think about Mandalorian people could get really trapped by that role meaning who Among Us is is brave enough and also I don't you know I don't want to like gas you up too much but like self selfless and uh that's what we're here for yes party this is fantastic but like selfless enough to go I'm gonna enter this character that might not have my face be seen and then still landed in a way that it doesn't trap you it doesn't like you're these c

haracters are kind of part of your journey as opposed to these characters eat you your observations are so good um what a word what a fancy word good which I'm sitting here and trying to take that in but the only thing that it's making me think is that that kind of [Music] um intelligent and astute observing is so much has so much to do with like what I see you do and it helps me actually understand what it is that is so um engaging and and watchable and which not to limit it to any of that but

beef is a perfect example of somebody who has just so much [ __ ] going on yeah you know so much not in a world that he's not being chased by zombies he's not flying a a ship through the galaxies or any of these things um but there's just so much danger within the averageness of his life and the generosity of sharing that in the performance with us being able to fulfill it but ultimately like sharing it and inviting us in into all of his intimacies yeah all of his self-loathing all of his guilt

all his rage yeah yeah how many people have been like telling you their road rage stories because I have one really do you have one yesterday oh my God please um this is not a lie I promise I had one yesterday too actually really it's just weird yesterday was a day yesterday was a day there was something going on and I was in the car from 11 in the morning to 11 at night yesterday so it was my fault I've had like three kind of incidences yeah all right they've all been my fault but yesterday I'd

cut somebody off to get out of their way yeah okay okay yeah um I didn't like cause an accident but I was like I saw an opportunity I got in this person really didn't want me to do that I got out of his way and then got into the left turn lane and he was like he she I don't know I didn't really see them laying on the horn laying on the horn I was like get it out get it out my little sister was next to me in the passenger seat and I was like yeah yeah yeah you know that kind of thing and then I

hear her go oh my God and I look over and there is a big glob of saliva like just like somebody like a nice like visual effects put it there man damn it was and just dripping down the side of the of the passenger window my sister was like holy [ __ ] yeah yeah he's still like a glob from the driver's side he just like clean up the heart what did you do I was in shock right it didn't trigger any kind of Rage out of me it triggered like whoa I guess I really crossed the line yeah like some you kno

w what I mean yeah I thought I was just getting into the left hand line it it absolutely kind of humbled me and shocked me scared me a little bit disturbed me didn't make me angry and I you know I'm quick to anger yeah yeah me too yeah yeah yeah I wonder if like your Consciousness about like not like reacting to that negatively is you recognize that that person is trying to connect with you some way you know what I mean to drink in their saliva yeah literally like they just spit like they feel g

uilty I was like gosh you know people are going through [ __ ] yeah especially yesterday I got flipped off yesterday dude yesterday was crazy it was a crazy day we're gonna turn this the whole actors on actors into a discussion on Los Angeles traffic and the Matrix aspect of it I was you know watching beef and with this sort of like Envy in terms of how much it reflects such a livable truth a living a living truth you know in day to day that can happen anywhere but was happening to me yesterday

in Los Angeles yeah the task is always as difficult as it can be to not abandon your character to like really live in their reality and like how do you approach that like like where do you start with something like that I really look inward I start inside I go where am I where is the part of me that deeply understands this person where is my Danny right where is that part of me that like feels isolated or alone or um cringe or gross or whatever and I would walk up to set every day being like I g

otta do what right I gotta like get dropped from a tree and everybody's just watching and I look pathetic yeah and like was that challenging or or did you see it as an opportunity to kind of like lean into the richness of that when I was younger as an actor I always and as a human I was always like why are things happening to me and you know growing up and kind of maturing over time and then also getting to do this work you're like oh things are happening for me or um through me and I might have

Ward against being dropped from a tree like that and like hanging in front of everybody and just like looking super pathetic and dumb I remember constantly saying like I see Ben Stiller I see what like meet the [ __ ] just to get [ __ ] on the whole movie and it was this thing where I had to use my own shame that I'm sure was connected to Danny in that way where you're like don't ever bail on Danny don't ever bail on yourself um don't ever bail on you know people I think I think that's the thin

g is like it's easy to bail yeah these days especially forever but like it's really easy to bail totally and not look at things yeah you know I think that I underestimate the kinds of things that you need to confront so that you can fulfill an assignment yeah I love the kind of ugliness slash vulnerability generally in characters I've seen you play and also you know bringing kind of um a layer of humanity to something that is sort of a silhouette of heroism you know I'm curious about how much yo

u have to deal with yourself um to like I said fulfill an assignment yeah and because I don't like actually dealing with myself very much you know saying I don't want to cause harm no I don't want to uh you know I don't like I don't like drama but um but gosh I'm not into challenges I think I'm not yeah I don't know but you keep throwing yourself headlong into them right like right you know you're the way you approach Joel the performance that I saw the whole time was like to have this depth of

like pain guilt shame sadness everything just repressed down that you could just stand there in the frame and it goes that says everything and that's a lot of internal work Raiders attacked the hospital I barely got you out of there we'll find you some new ones on the way the people are hurt it's kind of fun to have the permission yeah to like feel everything contain it or express it I'm not gonna lie I'm super envious of apart like yours in in in beef and the idea of like I was I was listening

to your show's Creator and it said yes we know Stephen is amazing and and we know he can do everything but you still haven't seen everything that he can do and here is a range that has always been there that that not everyone is is is aware of and um but it's clear though like I admire you very much same same and I think it's I think I think there's like a congruent similar not similar process where everybody difference has a different thing but like I really understand what your process might b

e I really admire what you're doing because it's not because you know there's a technicality to this job where you know you gotta you gotta do there's a base layer of like what you got to be proficient in and after that it just becomes like a study of yourself it becomes like uh at least for me it feels like a study of yourself which then as you go deeper into yourself you realize it's everyone I remember Andrew Cooper was our set photographer who is like only does like movies for like Scorsese

and like Tarantino and he said he'd do he's never done a TV show he's like we'll I'll shoot your show and we're like why I'm like dope we got Andrew Cooper to shoot our show and I was like oh he's gonna show up like once or twice snack some things and then leave he's there every day wow and he was just watching us and I would talk to him I was like one time at one point I was like Andrew why are you here and he was like I'm watching you guys and I'm seeing what y'all are doing and I remember him

telling me he's like nah like I see what you're doing already but I love it don't bail on Danny wow and that was really amazing for me to take that in like and to be seen also you know because something that occurred to me um when you were talking about um you know process but also just basically you know playing your character and and how as richly as you as you as as you can and how lonely it can kind of be because all of this works sometimes on in terms of the function of a set time lighting

I don't know social dynamics that can overwhelm the energy of the experience but you still have to do your job and be super vulnerable and you and and get along and do this kind of social activity and also very specific uh work and so it can become in terms of I don't know maintaining a certain amount of concentration one um to just being in tune like you say and not bailing on the character it's easy to bail like we've already I realized but I didn't realize it could be because I cared so much

about acting my whole life and I was like and I have way too much of an I have too big of an ego and too much dignity like yeah that I it doesn't matter how bad it is it doesn't matter what it is yeah I'm gonna give it uh you know a hundred and whatever percent yeah no matter if the camera's on me or off me and then with age I realize in some instances I've gotten kind of scared where phoning it in isn't necessarily but I can feel like I'm not I I'm not in it and I don't know how to get in it a

nd I don't know what I haven't done or what I need to do to get in it other than just sort of like breathe not bail and kind of have let all the feelings of be and be present and everything like that and have those performances ended up being like some of the ones you watch back here like I liked what I did there I don't know how I did it but I liked what I did there I have been watching less and less that's the same the same it's almost the experience itself right yeah it's it's it's um I agree

you know what I mean yeah I agree and it isn't about oh I just don't I don't I don't like watching myself because I really am conflicted I there's so much more outside of you that goes into making something and you want to honor and and take in everyone's everyone's work but that feeling that I get when I see myself it takes takes me out of the experience in a weird way that I just don't have the patience for I have the anymore you know I I remember an episode in The Last of Us and I'm dying in

bed and I'm on a dirty mattress and I'm at the very beginning but I know that the whole rest of the episode like I'm running and I was like I finally get to enjoy this you know uh show because I don't have to I'm not in I was like really excited about that one premiering and turning the lights out and like turning my phone and like all phone off and watching it you know um so anyway the thing that I was trying to get to in terms of like how special it can feel like somebody like Andrew Dominic

just kind of penetrating the loneliness of the experience a little in a way it's like the psychological loneliness of it and and making you feel like it's not in vain and of course it isn't because we all again if the camera is is taking it all and we get to see it but still to um it can be edited in a way that you don't right you're performing your performance can be editorialized in a way that you have no control over you really kind of have to give it absolutely everything and then give it up

completely yeah you know on the day for somebody to be like totally I see you yeah that's right like and Andrew Cooper that's what you're saying Andrew yeah yeah he really yeah like especially the guy who is seeing you like who is like yeah you know he's seeing you and he's seen so many yeah yeah it was really cool that is cool you deserve it man he's he's he knows what he's looking at oh man he was he was he was incredible and like so integral to that process it makes me just think about what

it is that we do [Laughter] maybe I shouldn't have asked that maybe we should cut that that's an impossible question but how often does the day shape the performance and how often do you let go to whatever the day is having you experience even if it's not directly correlated to what's on the page like sometimes I walk in and I'll be like I feel [ __ ] bummed today yeah and then I'm like but that works yeah yeah yeah you know totally and there's this subconscious process that happens I feel like

that I'm not always aware of but like you were saying like I think it's so smart to lean into the subconscious process because I have um I'm inclined to kind of control the experience and the very painful Growing Experience of letting go of expectation and for the benefit of like of the assignment you know of of the role of of the performance like realizing that you got to let go of the fact that we're losing the light or that there are all of these different elements that are obstacles out of y

our control and and just kind of go with it I almost feel like I need to talk to you beyond this conversation so that you because I have more questions in terms like Stephen how do I deal with when this is happening oh I don't know I just get how things happen you know what I'm getting like right where you yeah when you say kind of like letting go there's there's so many different ways to sort of um figure out how to have not the best experience but just find the most practical way to fulfill uh

an assignment yeah I I know what you mean I feel like I where I got extremely lucky um and I've been very very lucky my entire career is that I got to work with this particular director Lee Chang dong who basically we're about halfway through the movie uh that we were doing called burning he was just like a movie makes itself and I was like okay I was like I don't know what that means but okay yeah and I would just watch him set up the pieces and then just like go let's see what happens yeah an

d then know when he he's not trying to control anything like we did this one scene where like uh it's just like dusk scene that we only had like a 30 minute magic hour window to shoot every single time and we shot that over the course of a week we shot it he watches it all back he's like I'm gonna do it we're gonna do it again so we go the next week back and do the same thing and then all of a sudden one of the takes a flock of geese and I was like okay I mean like that's not available to everyb

ody no of course not but rarely yeah yeah but that I was like oh I see sometimes sometimes actually most of the time you're you're just dealing and letting go yeah yeah yeah it's so funny how hard that is so hard it's so hard because you're just like time is out like do you have any has that happened to you on Last of Us like things where so out of your control but then you're like that made this that made the show better yeah there were so many elements that were physical in terms of locations

and light and weird weather patterns that weren't expected and places where every year there's been snow and there wasn't and you know and it's perfect yeah it never snows here but it snowed on that one day yeah that we needed to shoot right yeah we didn't have any of that okay it was just all [ __ ] it's like 12 months of like gosh I'm a huge fan of what you did in unbearable weight of massive Talent oh you look like you had a [ __ ] blast I had a really good time I really did I don't know how

I don't know anyone else that could have carried us as an audience through that Journey talk about an emotional experience because that was the first job that I got uh during the pandemic and um it was also kind of like a ticket out of a very isolated place and into a world that you were afraid was disappearing in a way in terms of basically going back to work and being around people yeah you know yeah and that it was also hilarious and the homework for that for me I you know I was born in 75 an

d I started taking um I we have we're similarly I was less than two years old when my family made it to we got to Texas first and you said that you guys yeah you get to Canada or in Canada yeah Canada from Korea yeah yeah and then from Canada to Michigan yes yes of course yes yes um are they still in Michigan they're still in Michigan okay cool yeah because we haven't even gotten into the whole like sort of bilingual like that reality yeah the ending that comes from that yes being completely lik

e as we would say in Chile total gringos and and and also like just a foot in in in so many different worlds and how that informs the things that we do and and yeah and how it informs it in ways that we don't even fully understand yet and anyway I just like love sitting down with you and yeah I relate to you in so many ways and it has a lot to do with that I think but back to the unbearable ways my joy was your joy like watching your joy on that film was like my I was just like a grinning ear to

ear watching you that was totally the point I I I I felt that way you know growing up watching an actor like that who kind of was Breaking All the Rules and informing Us in in in in his way like what can be done on camera as far as commercial Independence action right you know what I mean everything he was still like no matter uncompromisingly yeah sort of making choices yeah and then I started to take that into really really young age so it was very weird to it was that was like the easiest th

e closest thing to myself that I'd ever done outside of the billions of dollars in the um illegal weapons trade that the character was involved in I'm so glad to meet you now me too me too I've been watching your whole I mean you've been I'm sure you were doing stuff before you got Walking Dead I would feel like you started income you were well you know well you know what was cool comedy you'd like you fulfill like we haven't talked about manari and like and and I just am I'm a big fan oh same a

nd I feel connected to you because I remember when you did Game of Thrones we were at the same comic-cons right yeah that's right yeah yeah man so there's just I've just been you know admiring your work on the journey together yeah I appreciate you me too yeah [Music] friends [Music] [Applause] [Music]