Since the release of the post-apocalyptic drama, The Last of Us, based on the video game of the same name, Pedro Pascal has received considerably more attention than he has previously in his career. However, like many great actors, his career spans nearly 30 years between theater and guest starring on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in the early 2000s, when he was so young that even if you did watch it, you wouldn’t make the connection between the man you saw then and the man you see today.

For the last 10 years, Pascal’s career has been steadily rising. With the success of supporting roles in Game of Thrones (which also famously featured The Last of Us’ Bella Ramsey), The Mandalorian alongside Grogu (don’t call him Baby Yoda), and Narcos, Pascal has been making his way to the front and center of the film and television industry. In the process, Pascal’s strong performances cemented his place as a leading Hollywood man. But, The Mandalorian and The Last of Us changed things. Pascal is no longer just an actor. No, with The Last of Us, he’s become a pop culture icon, with social media dubbing the heartthrob a total “daddy.”
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Pascal has been trending on social media, with videos from different interviews being Internet favorites, like Pascal telling Jimmy Kimmell his whole name, Jose Pedro Balmaceda Pascal, or compilations of genuine, goofy behavior that radiates the ultimate “daddy” qualities, exuding self-certainty and self-confidence. Still, his fans must note that although the world has only just now acknowledged Pedro’s certified daddy-ness, he has been, most respectively, giving “Big Daddy Energy” for a while.

Fire Meets Gasoline

This may seem off-topic, but bear with us: The 2010s is a decade that saw the widespread success of several compelling Australian music artists. From Lorde to Gotye, millennials can almost identify their late adolescence — early 20s by when they first heard “Royals,” in the same way that Gen Z can mark their own coming of age as when they first heard Farruko’s “Pepas.”

In particular, 2014 was the year that Australian music artist, Sia, broke through to the mainstream music world. By 2015, it was difficult to go anywhere without hearing “Chandelier” or “Titanium.” That year, the ever-controversial, emotipop artist Sia released “Fire Meets Gasoline,” a power ballad about a steamy relationship that is as beautiful as it is toxic. “Fire and Gasoline” conjures up all the euphoric and ugly feelings that accompany this type of relationship; the nature of two people’s ability to be each other’s most significant source of dopamine while also being each other’s poison. With lyrics like “Fire meet gasoline, I’m burning alive / I can barely breathe, when you’re here loving me,” Sia makes a clear stance as to the stability of this couple. They are complicated but passionate, bound by each other’s love in more ways than one. They see the world in each other’s eyes as their hearts rise into their throats.

Put simply, this is the stuff that built artists like Lana del Rey’s careers. So what does this all have to do with Pedro? At the same time as “Fire and Gasoline” released, Pascal’s aforementioned steadily rising career was beginning to see its first summit as Narcos Season 1 had just dropped on Netflix, and Game of Thrones was at its peak. Meanwhile, that very same year, supermodel Heidi Klum took over Elle Macpherson Intimates, renaming the brand Heidi Klum Intimates. In what was initially widely believed to be a music video and turned out to be a gorgeous ad for Heidi Klum Intimates, Pascal and Klum teamed up for an amorous short film shot to “Fire Meets Gasoline” from the director, Francesco Carrozzini (Netflix’s Supersex), whose fiery concept catapults our collective ambitions for Pascal in a more romantic role.

As Joel in The Last of Us, Pascal is rugged but sensitive in that “I drive a truck, wear boots with my jeans, and can carry you out of harm’s way for miles without breaking a sweat” kind of way. However, this shaggy persona is hardly new to Pedro, as it is the same energy he gives in “Fire and Gasoline.” In the video, Klum and Pascal are in a clearly tumultuous but steamy relationship. We see them making out and rolling around in the grass and on bedsheets with Klum’s lingerie line displayed throughout. As the video progresses, Pascal drives around in a pickup truck that looks like something Joel himself would have driven, and Klum douses her home with gasoline before lighting it on fire. With this performance, we see romantic Pedro in a relatable light, one that says, “It’s us against the world.” Although he takes on a very different role in The Last of Us as a literal father figure to Ellie, the similarities are easy to draw.

Put Pedro Pascal in More Romantic Roles, You Cowards!

Image via Heidi Klum / Instagram

A comment on the YouTube video summed it up best: I love the fact that 7 years ago everyone commented “yes, Sia another great song, woohoo!” and now it’s just “Yes Daddy Pedro.” It’s funny, but the user isn’t wrong. “So… We’re all here for the same reason, aren’t we,” another user remarks, and they’re right also. The “Fire Meets Gasoline” video currently has more than 129 million views and growing, but it would be interesting to see at what point the upward trend began for this video. With a number of comments mentioning Pascal and a substantial amount of users posting within the last couple of months, it’s easy to see Pascal’s recent career summit has something to do with it.

With so much love for Pascal going around, it’s a wonder how we haven’t seen him as a leading man in a romantic comedy or even a sweeping, romantic drama. The male lead role in a rom-com makes a great actor an icon because he warms his way into our hearts with a laugh and self-deprecating touch. But add in a romantic drama, like The English Patient or The Notebook, and we’ve got ourselves a certified dreamboat. It might just be three years into the 2020s, but we are still living without a dependable, romantic big-screen lead epitomizing this decade and so far, it’s something audiences can definitely see in Pascal. While the ’90s and early 2000s had Hugh Grant and George Clooney, the 2010s had Ryan Gosling, and now the ’20s obviously want Pedro Pascal. With nearly 30 years of working toward stardom and a romantic side that we know he’d give us his all in, he deserves it.