The movie world is always changing, including the popularity of the actors in the business. Many older actors got their fame from their many years on screen, and they’re long-lived fame. However, more recently, an older actor new to the scene has stolen the spotlight.

José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal is a 47-year-old Chilean born American actor. While he has some early works, such as his roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and NYPD Blue, he didn’t really become well-known until more recently. His most notable works include Netflix’s Narcos and Disney+’s The Mandolorian. 

However, the role that has been popularizing him on TikTok is his role in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. TikTok is known for many different things and provides many forms of entertainment, one being the edit. An edit is a short video, usually accompanied by music, of a montage of a certain person or scene from the media. An editor by the name of dvcree made an edit back in January of Pascal’s character Agent Whiskey from Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The edit became instantly popular.

The edit was posted around the same time as the airing of the new HBO series starring Pascal, The Last of Us. The combination of dvcree’s edit and the HBO series made Pascal a seemingly overnight sensation, even though he has been plying his craft since the mid-1990s. 

“I first started watching The Last of Us and I saw him in it and thought he was cool and then he started popping up on my FYP [For You Page] on TikTok and then my friends started talking about him,” Olympic Heights junior Alexsandra Trevino explains.

While his latest works have helped him become more known, one of his most well-known projects is Netflix’s 2015 series Narcos. The show is based on Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar with Pascal in the role of Javier Peña, the American Drug Enforcement Agency agent who investigated Escobar and his Medellin drug cartel. 

Pascal being cast in both Latino and Anglo roles has made him sort of a barrier-breaker in the industry as a Latino actor. “He’s funny and brings more Latin flavor to movies,” OH senior Nayelih Montano comments.

Lately, the Latin-American community has been able to see more of itself in entertainment, and Pascal has played his part in that. Being bilingual also allows him to play more complex roles. Even in Wonder Woman 1984, a role that received mixed reviews, he was able to bring his Latin roots to the character.

Another reason Pascal has been so loved is for his comfortableness and allyship with the LGBTQ+ community. In HBO’s Game of Thrones, Pascal played the character of Oberyn Martell, a prince with an open sexuality. 

Pascal also has a sister who came out as trans and had begun her transition. Pascal has openly expressed his support and love for his sister. Pascal also used to have a Twitter account where he interacted with fans and called out haters.

It is this kind of “down-to-earth” aspect of Pascal’s personality, coupled with his talent as an actor, that has made his popularity grow with each new project he takes on.