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"I woke up in the morning, and the first thing that occurred to me was like, 'Oh man, I really want that job.'"
Pedro Pascal is recalling the hilarious story about how he first learned he was cast in HBO's "The Last of Us" -- well, what he remembers about it least.
While appearing on Thursday night's episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," the actor shared that he took an Ambien after he received the good news that he was cast as Joel Miller in the post-apocalyptic drama. However, because of the sleeping pill, when Pascal woke up the next morning, he didn't remember that he had already been offered the job.
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View Story"That was a really strange circumstance. I was actually in London, and everyone else was in Los Angeles," Pascal, 47, began. "I got sent these scripts, and I was told that '[co-creator] Craig Mazin wants you to read these scripts. And if you like them, he'd like to talk to you.'"
"Anyway, I read the first script, and I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to meet him,'" he continued. "We talked. We fell in love. And they were like, 'Will you stay up a little bit later?' -- at this point, it was getting kind of late in London -- 'to talk to Neil Druckmann,' the creator of the video game. Genius. Brilliant guy."
Pascal said he stayed up for the late-night Zoom meeting with Druckmann, noting that it went well. However, "The Mandalorian" star was so wired after the video call that he decided to take an Ambien to help him fall asleep that night.
"We all fall in love, again," Pascal told Fallon. "At that point, it's really late. I've got to get up in the morning. I take an Ambien to go to sleep just in case -- they've got my adrenaline kind of going and my hopes up."
"But I get a call, and I get told that I got the job after I took the Ambien. And so I was excited, I guess, but I didn't remember. I woke up in the morning, and the first thing that occurred to me was like, 'Oh man, I really want that job,'" he continued, adding that he thought he was going to have to "wait by the phone all day long."
Pascal said he then checked his phone, and noticed that he had received text messages from friends, who congratulated him on the role, which triggered his memory.
"I looked at my phone, I was like, 'Oh yeah, I got the job!'"
"The Last of Us" airs Sunday nights on HBO.
