Like many little boys growing up in San Antonio, Texas, Pedro Pascal dreamed of being in a Zhang Yimou movie.
“Isn’t that weird?” the 41-year-old actor, known for his memorable turns on the TV series’ “Game of Thrones” and “Narcos,” says of his long infatuation with the acclaimed Chinese director’s work. “My parents introduced me to foreign cinema when I was really quite young. We saw ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ in a movie theater, when, I think, I was 12. That got me started.”
Pascal got to work with his idol on “The Great Wall.” Playing Spanish Crusades-era soldier of fortune Pero Tovar, he journeys with Matt Damon’s Irish mercenary, William Garin, to China in hopes of bringing gunpowder back to Europe but ends up fighting monsters with the local military on the legendary fortification.
The supersized American-Chinese co-production wasn’t at all like the modest Zhang art films Pascal grew up on, but that was cool.
“This wall that they built was like a wider, fortified version of the real Great Wall,” he marvels. “A cavalry of horses rode on it, thousands of extras in all of these incredible costumes stood on it, fought and acted on it. The doing of it felt as big as it looks when you see the movie. It felt strangely like Old Hollywood in a way, but having this experience on the other side of the world.”
The son of Chilean refugees who fled the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s, Pascal is well aware that when Americans see the word “wall” these days, they think of the Trump administration’s policies. The movie, of course, has no relation to that, but the casting of Western actors in a story about China’s most famous monument has ruffled racial sensitivities.
“‘Whitewashing’ is a very interesting word,” Pascal notes. “It isn’t suited to this movie, in that our characters are Europeans that were never originally Chinese, and that fact is very specific to the plot. But then, if you want to venture into white savior territory, you can see the movie and make the argument. Some can say that heroism is found within the culture that they make their way into and someone else can say, oh, these guys show up and join the fight.
“But it’s an interesting, strange kind of gray area. The frustration that’s been expressed around the issue cannot be denied; it’s totally legitimate. I think diversity does reflect the world we live in and should be as accessible to us in terms of what we have in entertainment. But this movie exists in that strange place where it’s very easy to accuse it and then possibly deny yourself talent that is diverse. I’ll be curious to see how the discussion continues after more people see it.”
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