Pedro Pascal has already proven that he’s perfectly capable of bringing a video game icon to life, having delivered a great Joel Miller for HBO’s live-action adaptation of The Last of Us, but the 47-year-old actor may not be stopping there. An HBO Mario Kart Trailer that was produced for Saturday Night Live’s S48 E12 episode would suggest that the actor might also make for a pretty great Mario, taking part in a skit that imagines what a Mario Kart movie set in a post-apocalyptic environment, featuring shotguns and other classic characters (e.g., Luigi, Princess Peach), might look like if Nintendo was wild enough to make it happen. Pascal served as the host for the latest episode of Saturday Night Live, which includes a number of skits featuring the actor, including one where he plays an Italian waiter.
From a transcript of Pedro Pascal’s monologue for SNL:
I spent the last year shooting a show called The Last of US on HBO. For some HBO shows, you get to shoot in a five-star Italian resort surrounded by beautiful people. But I said, no, that’s too easy. I want to shoot in a freezing Canadian forest while being chased around by a guy whose head looks like a genital warts.
It is an honor being a part of these huge franchises like Game of Thrones and Star Wars. But I’m still, I’m still getting used to people recognizing me. The other day, a guy stopped me on the street and said, “My son loves The Mandalorian,” and the next thing I know, I’m FaceTiming with a six-year-old who has no idea who I am because my character wears a mask for the entire show.
So the guy is like, Just do the Mando voice. But the Mando voice is like a bedroom voice. Without the mask, it just sounds corny. So people walking by on the street just see me whispering to a six-year-old kid. “I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.”