Ben Stiller / Pedro Pascal

Summary

Fresh Air (NPR): Ben Stiller & Pedro Pascal

Air Date: January 3, 2026
Host(s): Terry Gross, Tonya Mosley
Guests: Ben Stiller, Pedro Pascal

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Episode Overview

This episode of Fresh Air features two intimate, wide-ranging interviews. First, Terry Gross speaks with Ben Stiller about his deeply personal documentary on his parents, the legendary comedy duo Stiller and Meara. Stiller reflects on growing up around show business, his complicated family dynamics, and the process of unearthing old audio recordings that revealed both the strengths and challenges in his parents’ marriage and act.

Next, Tonya Mosley interviews Pedro Pascal, whose career has recently exploded thanks to major films and TV roles. Pascal discusses his early obsession with storytelling, the influence of his Chilean exile heritage, the emotional power of movies, and the physicality he brings to his acting.

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Ben Stiller on His Parents and Comedy Legacy

Interviewed by Terry Gross [02:38–32:49]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Discovery of Family Audio Tapes

• Ben shares the genesis of his documentary: While going through his father’s things after Jerry Stiller’s death, Ben found a trove of cassette and reel-to-reel tapes. These included personal conversations and sketches between his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, revealing facets of their partnership he’d never fully appreciated.
  Terry Gross: “Some of those conversations are included in the documentary along with video clips of their sketches from their TV appearances.” [03:27]

Childhood in a Showbiz Household

• Living with blurred lines between ‘real’ and ‘performance’: Ben discusses how, as a child, it was often hard to distinguish if his parents were truly fighting or just rehearsing.
  • Ben Stiller: “Sometimes there were arguments that happened. And it was kind of just like part of our lives... As a kid, I don't think you question these things. It's just like what your parents do.” [06:02]

The Iconic ‘Stiller and Meara’ Dynamic

• Differences in their approach to performing: His father was driven by a passion for standup, his mother by dramatic acting, and their tension often spilled over into both their work and marriage.
  • Ben Stiller: “My dad really wanted to do comedy. And I'm not sure my mom really wanted to.” [10:20]
  • Ben Stiller: “My mother was naturally great at live performing, and I feel that my father had to work at it more.” [11:46]

Growing up in the Public Eye

• Benefits and pressures of celebrity childhood: Ben fondly recalls excitement—staying up late at his parents’ nightclub gigs, being on set, and feel inspired to make movies. Meanwhile, there was an underlying unpredictability and pressure.

  • Ben Stiller: “It was a lot of fun times and more interesting to my sister and I than school for sure.” [15:13]

• Children as part of the act: Ben and his sister appeared on talk shows with their parents, sometimes uncomfortably:

  • Terry Gross: "I should mention here it was awful. There's cutaways to your parents laughing as you both play violin..." [16:16]
  • Ben Stiller: “They were co-hosting the Mike Douglas show... When I watch them laughing, I see them laughing, but also inside, because we're so not good. But they're like, oh, the audience is enjoying this. But we're kind of like, oh, I want my kids to do good. And also, why did we put them in this situation?” [16:27]

• On putting his own daughter in a film: Ben reflects on repeating the same patterns.

  • Ben Stiller: “I put her in the movie, and then I cut the scene out...I think that at the time, they just were like, yeah, this would be a fun thing to do. And we probably said to them, yeah, yeah, yeah, we want to do it. Not thinking of what the implications could be…” [17:53]

The Impact of Parental Absence

• Raised by a nanny (“Hazel”):

  • Ben Stiller: “Hazel took care of us...she had seven kids of her own...We would have our own secret world going on, my sister and I. And it was kind of like a free for all a little bit. When we were on our own, you know, we'd stay up late sometimes, try to sneak out.” [22:48]

• Teen misadventures:

  • Ben recounts sneaking into Studio 54 at age 13, describing how his and his sister’s celebrity connections gave them access to the famed nightclub.
    • Ben Stiller: “...my sister started going to Studio 54 when she was, I think she was like 17... I was 13 and she would take me to Studio 54 with her friends and we'd sneak us in.” [24:12]
    • Ben Stiller: “...They put me in a yellow and green polka dotted Fiorucci shirt...and these Mickey Mouse sunglasses. And we went up and Mark saw us and he like pointed to us...and we were in.” [24:54]

• Drug experimentation & family response: Ben took LSD as a teen and called his parents while they were filming "The Love Boat."

  • Ben Stiller: “I took LSD when my parents were out doing the Love Boat once... I called them up in LA ‘cause I was scared I was having a bad trip... My mom was really got really mad at me and my dad was actually much nicer and kind of tried to help talk me down.” [26:19]
  • “He had me close my eyes and just picture a color...He was just actually really trying to help me kind of soothe myself and get over this event.” [27:11]

Inheriting Family Patterns

• Passing down experience to his own children: Ben shares a poignant documentary scene where his son Quinn reveals frustration at Ben being interrupted by fans—echoing Ben’s own childhood stress around his father’s fame.
  • Quinn: “I had been stressed about college stuff. And then the people there wanted to get like a picture with you. And then I just remember I was so frustrated, like the world just has to stop to get this picture.” [29:39]
  • Ben Stiller: “You really try to do better than your parents, but it's very hard to not make some of the same mistakes that they make.” [30:02, 30:48]

Coping With Pressure

• Work, family, and finding peace:
  • Ben Stiller: “I know the places that I feel comfortable and relaxed...that to me has become going home and being able to, like turn it off...” [31:47]
  • “I found that that really, really helps. And then the other thing is just enjoying the work...only working on things I really care about and I really want to be doing.” [32:49]

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Pedro Pascal on Acting, Family, and Exile

Interviewed by Tonya Mosley [34:14–51:27]

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Love of Storytelling and Acting

• Childhood influences: Grew up in the '80s, obsessed with films like E.T., Poltergeist, Goonies; literature like The Color Purple and James Baldwin.

  • Pedro Pascal: “Just think about seeing E.T. in the movie theater...so I was very, very easy source of building a fantasy...or part of the adventure of telling those stories.” [35:46]

• Whoopi Goldberg as an inspiration:

  • Pedro Pascal: “She was playing a bunch of different characters. And I was just floored. It was magic.” [37:23]
  • “I saw that so many times. I could do some of her monologues.” [37:23]

• Literature as a lifeline:

  • Pedro Pascal: “I would hold [The Color Purple] like a treasure.” [38:46]

Family, Movies, and Dance

• Family bonding over film and dance:

  • Movie nights were a treasured tradition, with his dad leading the family out even on school nights.
  • Pedro Pascal: “I guess they're sort of, you know, my most special memories. We're very sort of like, moviegoing family.” [39:36]

• On dance and physicality:

  • Early exposure to ballet (his sister was a dancer); later, as a performer, he embraced postmodern improvisational dance, which deeply influenced his acting.
  • Pedro Pascal: “I love dance, and actually got sort of really seriously into, I guess, what you would call sort of postmodern style of improvisational dance in college.” [41:20]

• Dance’s connection to acting:

  • Pedro Pascal: “Game of Thrones being a perfect example... what the role is most known for is the fight... that is more dance than you can possibly believe if you don't want to get killed anyway.” [43:34]

The Physical and Emotional Body in Acting

• How past dance influences his acting:
  • Brings a keen awareness of body and presence to roles, especially those like Joel in The Last of Us.
  • Pedro Pascal: "He's a contractor... expresses himself through his physical relationship to work and to maintenance and that kind of thing. ...way easier than having a conversation.” [42:22]

Family Exile from Chile – Identity and Story

• Exile and political history:

  • Family fled Chile after being marked for arrest due to opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship. They received asylum in Denmark, then the US via Texas.
  • Pedro Pascal: "There was someone who brought an injured man to my mother's and father's home, knowing that my father was doing his residency at a hospital and asked for help..." [45:48]
  • "They had to, you know, go into hiding and find a way to survive. ... and it was about six months before they found a plan to sneak into the Venezuelan Embassy and claim asylum and be reunited with my sister and I." [47:37]

• Learning these stories as an adult:

  • Pedro Pascal: “It’s not a lore. It’s not a story you grew up knowing and having pride in... I remember one very, very vivid experience of seeing the movie Missing... and somehow putting all that together and understanding... as a child... and just like, absolutely falling apart.” [48:21–49:43]

Movies as Emotional Anchors

• Movies as a way to understand the world:
  • Pedro Pascal: “Movies have been so important to you in that way.” [50:42]
  • Pedro Pascal: “I feel like, profound gratitude to be doing something that I love to do and the people that I get to do it with ... And it's very bonding, it's very fun and I don't know anything else.” [50:55]

Memorable Closing

• On NPR and Fresh Air:
  • Pedro Pascal: “I've been listening to NPR through my parents since I was a teenager and my entire adult life... Getting to sit here with you is very special.” [51:29]

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Notable Quotes & Highlights

Ben Stiller

• “...And as a kid, I don't think you question these things. It's just like what your parents do.” [06:02]
• “You really try to do better than your parents, but it's very hard to not make some of the same mistakes that they make.” [30:02]
• "I found that ... being able to go home and turn it off ... that really, really helps." [31:47]
• “I was the guy who called his parents on LSD.” [26:29]

Pedro Pascal

• "She was playing a bunch of different characters. And I was just floored. It was magic." [37:23]
• "I would hold [The Color Purple] like a treasure." [38:46]
• “Game of Thrones ... what the role is most known for is the fight ... that is more dance than you can possibly believe if you don’t want to get killed anyway.” [43:34]
• "I feel like, profound gratitude to be doing something that I love to do ... And it's very bonding, it's very fun and I don't know anything else." [50:55]
• "Getting to sit here with you is very special." [51:29]

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Key Timestamps

• [04:40] – Excerpt from Stiller and Meara tape and Ben’s childhood confusion about rehearsal vs. real argument.
• [10:20] – Differences between Ben’s parents’ approaches to comedy and acting.
• [16:14] – Ben and his sister’s talk show "performance" memories.
• [24:12] – Sneaking into Studio 54 as a teenager.
• [26:19] – Ben’s LSD story and calling his parents for help.
• [29:39] – Ben’s son Quinn describes the impact of Ben’s fame on their relationship.
• [34:14] – Introduction of Pedro Pascal interview.
• [37:23] – Whoopi Goldberg’s influence on Pedro.
• [41:20] – Dance and its connection to acting for Pedro.
• [45:48] – Pascal describes how his parents were forced into exile.
• [48:21] – The effect of seeing ‘Missing’ as a child and realizing his family’s trauma.
• [50:55] – Pascal’s reflection on gratitude for his career.

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Tone & Style

Both interviews are characterized by warmth, candor, and a self-reflective humor—especially surrounding complex family dynamics and legacies. Stiller is wry and deeply honest about both his parents’ foibles and his own. Pascal’s tone is emotional, grateful, and humble, frequently awed by the arc of his own life and career. Both guests speak with deep appreciation for family, art, and the power of storytelling.

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Useful for Listeners Who Haven’t Heard the Episode

This summary covers Ben Stiller’s affectionate yet probing look at his parents and how their fame shaped his life and psyche and Pedro Pascal’s thoughtful account of finding belonging—both through his art and his family’s extraordinary journey. Fans of comedy, storytelling, or Hollywood family histories will find resonance in Stiller’s stories, while Pascal’s words offer inspiration for those navigating identity, displacement, or creative ambition.

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End of summary. Advertisements, sponsor messages, and non-content sections omitted.

Transcript

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[Tonya Mosley]

From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is FRESH AIR weekend. I'm Tonya Moseley. Today we continue our series highlighting some of our favorite interviews of the year. Ben Stiller discusses his documentary about his parents, the comedy duo Stiller and Meera. When they leave town for work, Ben sometimes went rogue, going to places like Studio 54 with his older sister. When he was just 13, they put.

[Ben Stiller]

Me in a yellow and green polka dotted Fiorucci shirt. Fiorucci was the store at the time that was like the cool fashion store and an army jacket and these Mickey Mouse sunglasses.

[Tonya Mosley]

Also, we hear from Pedro Pascal. He's been a Marvel superhero, a grieving smuggler in the Last of Us and a bounty hunter in the Mandalorian. Last summer, he starred in both the Fantastic Four, First Steps and Materialists. That's coming up on FRESH AIR Weekend.

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[Ben Stiller]

Our state of Stigma report helped us understand that believing in mental health is easy, but asking for help is not. Now with the report on our hands, we can work to make mental health care more accessible.

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[Tonya Mosley]

This is FRESH AIR weekend. I'm Tanya Moseley. Here's Terry with our first interview.

[Terry Gross]

My guest, Ben Stiller has made a very personal documentary about his parents and what it was like to be their son. Ben's father, Jerry Stiller, co starred on Seinfeld playing Frank Costanza, George's father, Ben's mother, Ann Meera, was an actress. Together, Ben's parents were known as the comedy duo Stiller and Mara. They were so popular in the 60s and 70s, they were on the Ed Sullivan show more than 30 times. Sometimes Ben went with them to their appearances on TV talk shows and in nightclubs. In 20, 25 years after Meara's death, Jerry Stiller died While Ben was going through his father's possessions, he was stunned to discover stashed away many cassette and reel to reel audio recordings Jerry Stiller had made. They documented his life and his relationship with Anne, including recordings of conversations with Anne in which they had disagreements about their marriage and their act. Some of those conversations are included in the documentary along with video clips of their sketches from their TV appearances. The documentary Stiller and Nothing Is Lost is streaming on Apple tv. Ben Stiller has been famous for years as an actor, starring in such films as Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Night at the Museum and their sequels, as well as Dodgeball, Tropic Thunder and the Royal Tenenbaums. In the last few years he's been doing more and more directing and producing. Now he's the executive producer and primary director of the popular Emmy Award winning Apple TV series Severance. Let's start with a clip from the new documentary Stiller and Nothing Is Lost. This is an excerpt of one of the audio recordings of Ben's parents rehearsing a sketch about how the couple they're portraying hate each other, not realizing that Ben's sister, who was then a child, is overhearing them, thinking the argument is real. At the end of this recording, we'll hear Ben and his sister Amy looking back. At that time, we have a sketch.

[Ben Stiller]

Which we call Hate Heat of your hot hate. You know, I say to Anne, I hate you.

[Pedro Pascal]

And she says, you hate me?

[Ben Stiller]

I hate you. And one day Amy, who's six, came into the room and she heard us saying this to each other. And we looked at her for a moment and we didn't know what to say. So we said, amy, mommy, Daddy, rehearse. Mommy, Daddy, rehearse. And Amy looked at us and she started to smile.

[Pedro Pascal]

Well, about two weeks later, we were.

[Ben Stiller]

Fighting and Amy walked in and she.

[Tonya Mosley]

Said, mommy, Daddy rehearsed. No, mommy, Daddy, fight. Get out of here.

[Ben Stiller]

It gets to be a little complicated sometimes.

[Tonya Mosley]

I hated you before I met you.

[Ben Stiller]

I hated you before you were born. To me, that's like one of the things that I think about is just how that became sort of like, yeah, that's the Laugh. That's the funny joke. But what is the reality of that story, though?

[Tonya Mosley]

We don't know, Ben.

[Terry Gross]

That's why we're so messed up.

[Ben Stiller]

That's why we're doing this documentary.

[Tonya Mosley]

That's why we're gonna figure it out.

[Terry Gross]

So those last two voices were Ben Stiller and his sister Amy. Ben Stiller, welcome back to FRESH air. This is a really probing, emotionally deep. I really, really liked it. So the clip that we open with is your sister not being able to tell sometimes what was a real fight and what was a rehearsal for a sketch. Did you experience anything like that?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. Nice to be with you, Terry. Yeah. In this apartment that we lived in, they had a living room. We called it the big living room. It wasn't that big, but that they would use as their office when we were. And then I think like when I was like 13 or 14, they got an office on 57th Street. But most of the time they'd been in this office in the apartment working. So we would just hear them, you know, doing their thing in there. And sometimes their voices would be raised. And, yeah, sometimes there were arguments that happened. And it was kind of just like part of our lives. It was like, yeah, mom and dad are doing their thing in there. And as a kid, I don't think you question these things. It's just like what your parents do.

[Terry Gross]

So a lot of people know your father, Jerry Stiller from Seinfeld, playing George's father, Frank Costanza, but they don't necessarily know Stiller and Mira routines. So I want to play one of their better known ones that I think is really funny. And this goes back to the really early days of computer dating. And I think at this point you didn't have your own computer. This is the period where you'd send in your information and they'd put it through a computer at the company and then send you back a match. Am I right in thinking that?

[Ben Stiller]

I think so. I don't know how it worked, but it definitely was pre personal computers.

[Terry Gross]

This was in the 60s. Yeah. Okay.

[Ben Stiller]

But I think the idea of a computer being able to match people up, that was the new thing that was happening.

[Terry Gross]

So this borrows from your parents actual marriage because your father is Jewish. Your mother was Irish and Catholic, although she later converted to Judaism. So in this sketch, the computer dating service has set them up together. And your father's name in the sketch is Hershey Horowitz, and your mother's name in the sketch is Mary Elizabeth Doyle. Where you from?

[NPR Sponsor Announcer / Joanna Strober / Fernando Madera]

Me?

[Terry Gross]

I'm from Flatbush. Oh, really?

[Ben Stiller]

That's where I'm from.

[Terry Gross]

You're kidding.

[Ben Stiller]

East 42nd Street.

[Tonya Mosley]

I live on East 42nd Street.

[Pedro Pascal]

Oh, that's amazing.

[Ben Stiller]

That's my blog. Really?

[Tonya Mosley]

Hey, this computer really works. Gee, that's fine. Hey, you know Richie Flanagan?

[Ben Stiller]

Richie Flanagan?

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah.

[Tonya Mosley]

Tall, skinny kid?

[Pedro Pascal]

No.

[Ben Stiller]

Do you know Morris Goldstein?

[Tonya Mosley]

Goldstein? No, I don't know him. You know Mary Ellen Moriarty?

[Ben Stiller]

Mary Ellen Moriarty?

[Terry Gross]

No.

[Ben Stiller]

Do you know Moishe Beta?

[Tonya Mosley]

Moshe?

[Terry Gross]

No.

[Ben Stiller]

Moishe Beter?

[Pedro Pascal]

Moishe.

[Tonya Mosley]

But no. No, I would remember.

[Ben Stiller]

Do you know Elliot Blumenfeld?

[Tonya Mosley]

No, I don't know him. You know Danny McQueenie?

[Pedro Pascal]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Timothy Sheehy?

[Pedro Pascal]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Tommy Tuohy? No.

[Ben Stiller]

Stanley Austin?

[Tonya Mosley]

No, I don't know him.

[Ben Stiller]

Adolph Hausman?

[Terry Gross]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Xavier Duffy?

[Ben Stiller]

No. Mike Schoenfeld?

[Tonya Mosley]

Grace Mary McGinnity?

[Ben Stiller]

Raymond Kish?

[Tonya Mosley]

Kathleen Hall?

[Pedro Pascal]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Sis Hall?

[Ben Stiller]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Junior Hall?

[Pedro Pascal]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Mike Hall?

[Ben Stiller]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Marguerite Hall?

[Terry Gross]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

Raymond Hall?

[Terry Gross]

No.

[Tonya Mosley]

You don't know the Halls?

[Terry Gross]

No.

[Ben Stiller]

You know Seymour Aaron Price?

[Tonya Mosley]

No, I don't know him.

[Ben Stiller]

Do you know the Lepson brothers?

[Tonya Mosley]

No, I don't know that.

[Ben Stiller]

Artie and Jerry?

[Tonya Mosley]

You know the Monahan twins, Maureen and Moira?

[Pedro Pascal]

No.

[Ben Stiller]

That's a pretty big block. Now these 47. Those were all my mother's cousins she was naming.

[Terry Gross]

Oh, no. Really? That's so cool. All the halls.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah.

[Terry Gross]

You know, it's interesting. I don't know if the listeners heard this, but my headphones, I could hear you laughing during the sketch and you must have heard it like hundreds of times. But the timing is so good and it's so funny.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, it was fun. I mean, it's just something about, you know, just the concept of the sketch, that they're from such different worlds and those names are so specific. It just makes me laugh and. Yeah, still funny.

[Terry Gross]

To me, there were conflicts that existed in your parents marriage that also existed in their working relationship. And your parents had really different approaches to performing and different levels of anxiety. And before I play a clip that kind of illustrates some of that, I want you to explain what some of the differences were that would get in the way of both performances and the marriage.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, I think the core difference was that my dad really wanted to do comedy. And I'm not sure my mom really.

[Terry Gross]

Wanted to because she was a dramatic actress before doing comedy.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. She was studying with UTA Hagen, you know, HB Studios in the Village, and a teacher named Alfred Linder, a member. She talked about and was very committed to being a dramatic actress. And then my dad had dreamed of being Eddie Cantor and being a standup. And both of them grew up during the Depression. And I think for my dad, that was his beacon, his way out were these comedians. And he had this drive that I'm amazed at what he had to do to get out of that Lower east side tenement and realize his goal of doing this, which he did. And when he met my mom, I think he fell in love with her. And creatively, he was just so connected to her. And he saw her brilliance and how good she was at acting. And also he knew she was funny. Maybe it was just in them interacting with each other. And he drew her into doing this comedy act. They'd been living together for seven or eight years, married and were starving actors. And he had this idea to take their situation and turn it into these little sketches, and that changed their lives. But my mother really never had that dream. So in approaching going, you know, going on stage, and this is the irony, I think is really, it's always fascinated me is that my mother was naturally great at live performing, and I feel that my father had to work at it more. So that was sort of always the dynamic throughout their whole lives when they would approach having to perform, the preparation was very different.

[Terry Gross]

And he seemed more anxious about performing even.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, I think he loved to perform, but he needed to just rehearse and go over it again and again. And I think of myself, I don't love live performing. I think I'm probably maybe a little more like my dad that way. And my mom was much more, I don't know, she just would kind of go out there and go with it and had just the sort of natural ability to be on stage and let it happen and be comfortable on stage.

[Tonya Mosley]

We're listening to Terry Gross's conversation with Ben Stiller. His new documentary is about the lives and careers of his late parents, the comedy duo Stiller and Meera. He's also an executive producer and primary director of the TV series Severance. The documentary and Severance are both streaming on Apple tv. More after a break. I'm Tonya Mosley, and this is FRESH air.

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[Terry Gross]

What were some of the fun parts for you of having celebrity parents? And then we'll get to the downside.

[Ben Stiller]

I mean there wasn't. Honestly, it was a lot of fun. It's so interesting because when you really analyze it, to think about what the downside was at the time, there wasn't a downside for us as kids. We were just living in this world where my parents would go out and either they'd go out late and play a nightclub. I remember when they played nightclubs in New York and that was really exciting for us. We get to stay up late, hang out with the grownups, interesting, funny people coming in and out of the house. You know, they would have these New Year's Eve parties. My parents at their apartment in the late 70s and into the 80s that were just, you know, amazing. And as kids it was really fun to be around. I loved going on sets when they would go out to la, if they would do a show like Courtship of Eddie's Father or to be on, you know, the Paramount Studios lot. And for me it made me want to make movies. Being around that, it was very clear early on that's what I wanted to do. So it was a lot of fun times and more interesting to my sister and I than school for sure.

[Terry Gross]

You and your sister Amy were on talk shows with your parents and once you even played was this with Mike Douglas that you played a violin duet of Chopsticks with her?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Terry Gross]

And I should mention here it was awful. There's cutaways to your parents laughing as you both play violin and perform. I bet you didn't Know, at the time that they were laughing, I mean.

[Ben Stiller]

I look at their faces because basically what they, you know, they were co hosting the Mike Douglas show. And what that meant was they would sit there with him as all the other guests came on, and they would do a week of shows in one day down in Philadelphia. And so they would send a limousine. Again, this was very exciting for us as kids. They send a limousine up to New York, and we go down with my parents in the limo. They do two shows in the morning. We'd go to a restaurant called Bookbinders for lunch that I remember as a kid where they had lobsters in a tank. And it was just all very exciting. Then they go do the other shows and go home. And I guess one time they brought us on because they were just looking for bits to do. And I think when I watch them laughing, I see them laughing, but also inside, because we're so not good. But they're like, oh, the audience is enjoying this. But we're kind of like, oh, I want my kids to do good. And also, why did we put them in this situation? I feel all that when I look at their faces.

[Terry Gross]

Well, speaking of putting you in that situation, were there times that you were uncomfortable being on the talk show set and being asked questions by whoever was hosting that particular show? Because I kind of question whether it's fair to the kids to put them in something that they're too young to understand, what it means to be on TV and what the consequences or what the upside might be.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, I mean, I even did it with my daughter, and I have that in the movie, too, where I put her in Secret Life of Walter Mitty when she was 8. And then I cut the part out, which I don't recommend ever doing that with your kid, putting them in. Well, I put her in the movie, and then I cut the scene out of the movie because the scene wasn't right for the movie. But of course, my daughter remembers it. I cut her out when she was 8 years old. But it was the same feeling, though, on the set. You put a kid in that situation as it was happening, I'm like, oh, man, this is so much pressure on her. And then I was feeling the pressure, too. And I'm sure that's what my parents were feeling at the time, but not thinking it through. I think that at the time, they just were like, yeah, this would be a fun thing to do. And we probably said to them, yeah, yeah, yeah, we want to do it. We want to do it. You know, not Thinking of what the implications could be in terms of, you know, psychological trauma years later, what were the consequences? I mean, I don't feel like I was traumatized from that experience, but I remember other little things. I mean, when you're a kid, things like that obviously affect you on a deep level. You just, you know, it's how you process it later and sometimes you don't realize. I remember just thinking about being on a game show set. I remember when my parents were doing the $10,000 pyramid once and they had this area on the set called the winner's circle where you go for the final round. And they had two chairs where the, you, the contestant and the star would sit opposite each other and there were microphones set up. And I remember at lunchtime I went down to the winner's circle and sat in the chair and I touched the microphone and the microphone moved. And then a stage manager or someone yelled at me and said, hey, hey, don't move. That. That microphone was set for whichever actor was there. And that I've remembered my whole life as being traumatized by that. So things like that, when you're a kid in a grown up situation can really affect you.

[Terry Gross]

You think that your mother was not always comfortable with being a mother, that she found it kind of stressful and you think that's in part because she lost her mother when she was 10. You know, during her part of her formative years. She didn't have a mother who she could later model herself on or decide, I'm not going to do it that way, I'm going to do it my way. Did you sense that discomfort when you were a child?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, and she talked about it a lot when she was older. Yeah, that she lost her mom when she was about 10. She was an only child. This was in 1941, I think. And she, you know, I think it was a really lonely, tough childhood for her. Her dad loved her and did as much as he could for her. But I think when she finally had kids, she was daunted by how to be a mom. And then, of course, having to then balance that with the performing. She wanted to have kids, but then, you know, when she also had to do all of this high pressure live performing when the kids were at such a young age. I can imagine that was a really, really hard thing for her. And I sensed it subconsciously, I think, as a kid. Of course, you just absorb everything from your parents when you're a kid and when you're around them. So stuff that you are aware of Stuff you're not aware of. And I felt it. I felt the tension with her and my dad when they would be getting ready to perform. And I talk about the drinking in the movie. That was something that wasn't discussed in our house. And I think it was. Cause my dad didn't really know how to deal with that. And he was trying the best he could to figure out how to manage this relationship and this, you know, this marriage and this working relationship that was their livelihood. So we sensed it. But it was, you know, stuff that I kind of processed later in life.

[Terry Gross]

So you really enjoyed going to clubs where your parents were performing or to the Ed Sullivan Show. But also, although you loved hanging out with your parents and the other stars, one of the tough parts of having parents in a comedy duo was that they were gone a lot. They toured a lot. You're on the Ed Sullivan show, you know, over 30 times, and you're going to get booked all over the country. So they became pretty famous. I remember seeing them on Ed Sullivan. So you were without your parents a good deal of the time. And the person who was with you was your nanny who partly raised you. So what was her life like when they were gone? How did that absence affect you?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, so Hazel, Hugh was our nanny. Hazel took care of us and was basically, since I think the time that I was probably about 4 years old, and she was from Jamaica and she had seven kids of her own and they lived in Brooklyn. And we became very close with her family, with her kids, because they were, you know, some of them were Amy and my age. And my parents would go away for like a two week stint to LA to do whichever show, game show or Love Boat or whatever it was. And, you know, Hazel was, you know, she was so sweet. She knew she had to be the disciplinarian and keep us in line. But we would also kind of have our own secret world going on, my sister and I. And it was kind of like a free for all a little bit. When we were on our own, you know, we'd stay up late sometimes, try to sneak out. And as we got older and became teenagers, you know, then there were other things going on. Like, my sister started going to Studio 54 when she was, I think she was like 17. And I guess I can talk about this, Terry. Now, I was 13 and she would take me to Studio 54 with her friends and we'd sneak us in. Yeah.

[Terry Gross]

How did you get into Studio 54?

[Ben Stiller]

You know what Studio 54. Like, the whole thing was outside, you Know, there's like people waiting to get in. Right. The bouncers have to choose you.

[Terry Gross]

Yeah. Part of it depended on how attractive you were.

[Ben Stiller]

Exactly. And how they were curating the night. Right. And this guy Mark was the main bouncer. Somehow Amy, my sister, and her friend Vicky, they had gotten in with him. And you know, it's a question Amy and I have talked about whether or not he knew that our parents were, you know, still. Or Amira, maybe that had something to do with it, I don't know. But he would pick them to go in. And one night Amy said to me, Amy and Vicky said like, we're gonna dress you up and we're gonna take you to Studio 54. We're gonna get you in. This is when my parents were out of town and they put me in a yellow and green polka dotted Fiorucci shirt. Fiorucci was the store at the time that was like the cool fashion store. And an army jacket and these Mickey Mouse sunglasses. And we went up and Mark saw us and he like pointed to us and like, you know, said, come on in. And we were. And it happened a few times. So I think I was 13.

[Terry Gross]

Well, one of the things Studio 54 was famous for was people doing a lot of coke. What did you see that you probably shouldn't have been exposed to?

[Ben Stiller]

I mean, I don't remember seeing people like doing stuff like that in the bathrooms or like, you know, but I remember being in the upper, the balcony and seeing there were like people making out and the average white band. I remember talking to the average white band there.

[Terry Gross]

For people who don't know the band, that's the name of the band.

[Ben Stiller]

The average white band was a band.

[Terry Gross]

They're not calling a band of white people average.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, but I mean, I remember dancing too and being really into dancing there. And yeah, it was a little bit, you know, look, it was definitely, you know, kind of like feral kids out on our own, you know.

[Terry Gross]

Did your parents ever find out some of the things you did when they were gone?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, they did. I talked about this on a talk show once too. I took LSD when my parents were out doing the Love Boat once.

[Terry Gross]

I love the comparison between the Love Boat and you being on a hallucinogenic.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. And I was the guy who called his parents on lsd. I called them up in la cause I was scared I was having a bad trip. The only time I ever did LSD and I talked to him and my mom was really got really mad at me and my dad was actually Much nicer and kind of tried to help talk me down. And he said, I understand what you're going through. When I was 11 years old, I smoked a pell mell cigarette and I was sick for two days. And I was like, no, dad, you don't understand. I'm like, I don't understand what reality is. But he was great. He was actually great about it.

[Terry Gross]

In tucking you down?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. No. And I was, like, freaked out a little for a while afterwards. I was scared from the experience. My dad was so great. I remember he took me for a drive, and he parked the car and he said, let's just meditate a little bit. And he had me close my eyes and just picture a color. I think it was purple or something. He said, just think of it as a soothing color. I don't know if he had been doing some therapy himself that he had this idea to do this, but he was just actually really trying to help me kind of soothe myself and get over this event, as opposed to a parent who was like, never do that again, and you're grounded or whatever.

[Terry Gross]

I think it's wonderful that you felt comfortable enough with your father to call him while you were tripping.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. I mean, that's interesting, because that's one of those things you don't think about. It's just, like, this visceral gut reaction. And that's what I did. I guess that does say something about our relationship. But he was always, for me, a very spiritual person and very. I think that's what people connected with him, too, because he had just like, a really open heart.

[Terry Gross]

There's a scene in the movie that's a real standout scene. You're talking to your son, who's kind of interviewing you during part of the film so that you can tell stories and be telling them to someone. And not only someone, to your own son. And so you're telling him about how weird it was for you when you were having a conversation with your father. And a fan would come up and interrupt the conversation. And your father would pay attention to the fan, right?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. I was talking to my son about how. Yeah. Growing up with my parents, they would get recognized and on the street, my mom usually wouldn't want to talk to people for a long time, or she'd say, hi, but she wanted to just go on and just keep doing her thing. And my dad would talk to people forever. Like, if someone wanted to talk to him, he would get into conversations about their family, and it would just go on and on. It used to drive my mother crazy. And as kids, we would feel that when you're little, you feel that your parents attention being taken away from you. So I was talking about that with Quinn, my son, and he interrupts me.

[Terry Gross]

And we'll play what he has to say. Okay, so here's Quinn.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, that's actually hilarious because just a few weeks ago we were all out at a restaurant and I had been stressed about college stuff. And then the people there wanted to get like a picture with you. And then I just remember I was so frustrated, like the world just has to stop to get this picture. You know what I mean? I think I got.

[Terry Gross]

So Ben Stiller, what was it like when your son told you that?

[Ben Stiller]

I was surprised, yet not surprised. I was surprised that he actually brought that up in that moment and that the example he was using was so recent. But it was in that moment I was like, okay, this is actually probably a really good moment for the movie. But I also as a person was feeling like, oh, this is really. Ugh, gosh. And all I could say in the moment was like, oh, yeah, I guess I have like a lot of my dad and me, or more of my dad and me than my mom. And it's just that realization that. And it wasn't a new realization for me. But you know, that thing of like, you really try to do better than your parents, but it's very hard to not make some of the same mistakes that they make.

[Terry Gross]

Were you even aware that you were doing that?

[Ben Stiller]

I wasn't aware. No, I was not. You know what surprised me about what he said was, cause he's 20, that that had happened like he said like last week. And I thought, well, I thought, well, this is something that happened when he was little, you know, but the fact that he. It actually like affected him still at this age, you know, that actually really did hit me, you know, just as an awareness of like, yeah, this is a reality that he had to live with. I had to live with my own version of it with my parents. But it's a tough thing.

[Terry Gross]

You are a producer, a director, an actor. You just finished a documentary about your parents. So you're dealing with working with other actors, investigating your own family history, running a production company. How do you deal with all the stress of that and the responsibility? That's a lot.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, I mean, it's been a busy time for me. I know the places that I feel comfortable and relaxed and, you know, like the kind of safe haven. And that to me has become going home and being able to, like turn it off and figure out how to do that. Finally, I think I've figured that out, at least to a certain extent, that I can get home and really enjoy being with my family. My kids are both out of the house now, but when they're around, it's great. But with Christine just hanging out together and watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills with my daughter or something like that, or kind of just finding those moments to kind of unplug, I found that that really, really helps. And then the other thing is just enjoying the work and the projects that I'm working on that I only working on things I really care about and I really want to be doing.

[Tonya Mosley]

Ben Stiller's documentary, stiller and Nothing Is Lost is now streaming on Apple tv. He spoke with Terry Gross. Coming up, we'll hear my interview with Pedro Pascal. I'm Tonya Mosley, and this is FRESH AIR Weekend.

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[Tonya Mosley]

Hello and happy New Year. It's Michele Martin from MORNING Edition. Thank you to everyone who donated during our end of year fundraising campaign. 2025 dealt a big blow to NPR.

[Ben Stiller]

And local stations with the loss of federal funding for public media, but we are so heartened by the outpouring of.

[Tonya Mosley]

Support, and we will get through this together. Thank you for keeping NPR strong, moving.

[Ben Stiller]

Into 2026 and beyond.

[Tonya Mosley]

We're excited to share that.

[Terry Gross]

In celebration of her 50th anniversary hosting FRESH AIR, Terry Gross will be a.

[Tonya Mosley]

Guest on the Late show with Stephen Colbert.

[Terry Gross]

Tune in on Thursday, January 8th on CBS.

[Tonya Mosley]

If you've watched TV, gone to the movies or even glanced at a bus stop ad recently, you've probably seen Pedro Pascal staring back at you. Last year alone, his face has been splashed across posters and billboards for the Fantastic Four, First Steps, Eddington and Celine Song's materialists. Pascal has become one of Hollywood's most magnetic leading men, often playing reluctant protectors like in the Mandalorian and the Last of us who find family in the unlikeliest of places. That connection between found family on screen and his own life came into sharp focus during his Saturday Night Live monologue back in 2023, when he credited his parents for making sacrifices to bring him to the United States from America, a journey that began with political exile and helped shape a career defined in part by portraying outsiders finding their way in. That combination of personal history and on screen vulnerability has made him something rare in Hollywood, a star that people feel like they know. A recent New Yorker cartoon captured it perfectly. A therapist tells a client that lately a lot of people are reporting that their faith in humanity is. Is riding entirely on whether or not Pedro Pascal is as nice as he seems. Pedro Pascal, welcome to FRESH air. What was it about acting? Because you started talking about wanting me an actor at like 4 years old.

[Pedro Pascal]

Well, I was born in 75. And just think about seeing E.T. in the movie theater, you know, think about seeing Poltergeist and the Goonies and, you know, Gremlins and, you know, so I was very, very easy source of building a fantasy of, you know, wishing you were either living these adventures, experiencing these adventures, or part of the adventure of telling those stories.

[Terry Gross]

Yeah.

[Tonya Mosley]

You know, I keep coming across these little details, like you being obsessed with, with the Color Purple.

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah.

[Tonya Mosley]

James Baldwin for Colored Girls, To Kill a Mockingbird. So you were really into literature as well. And I'm trying to piece together who is this kid. How would you describe yourself back then? You were a deeply feeling child. But what did these worlds provide for you? Because, you know, they're entertaining for everyone else. But it sounds like there was another step for you where you felt immersed in them.

[Pedro Pascal]

Well, I think being moved, moved, you feel very alive. You feel very inspired, you know, and in school, in a way, by incredible storytelling, incredible performances, incredible literature, you know. So the process around the Color Purple is very interesting because we had cable TV and Whoopi Goldberg had a televised show that had been transferred to Broadway and then shot for television for hbo. It was just called Whoopi.

[Tonya Mosley]

Yes.

[Pedro Pascal]

And she was playing a bunch of different characters. And I was just floored. It was magic. And with that show Whoopi, I mean, I saw that so many times. I could do some of her monologues.

[Tonya Mosley]

The hair and the towel.

[Pedro Pascal]

Oh, my gosh. And he said, okay. I said, okay. We said, okay, okay. And I mean, I literally haven't I haven't seen that since I think, the 80s, you know, and it's imprinted. Right. And then I'm walking out of a movie and I see a poster of this, like, silhouette of Whoopi Goldberg in a rocking chair with purple and Steven Spielberg's name on it and her name, Whoopi Goldberg in the Color Purple. And I'm just like, here I am, completely moved by the marketing of it, and I think the movie is a masterpiece. And I think it's one of the greatest screen performances in the history of cinema that she did in her purely freshman experience, her first time on camera, on film, her first movie role. And I just was, frankly, overwhelmed by it in the best way. And I couldn't let it go. So I had to get the book, and I read the book.

[Tonya Mosley]

You'd walk around with the book?

[Pedro Pascal]

I would hold it. Yeah. I would hold it like a treasure.

[Tonya Mosley]

Your mom saw this in you. She saw this and wanted to connect with you because of it. You guys would have these family movie nights.

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah, yeah. My dad was the. Was the. Was the moviegoer. My mom was selective.

[Terry Gross]

Mm.

[Pedro Pascal]

She would fall for. She would notice much more if I. If I was, like, really into a book or if Prince was in it.

[Tonya Mosley]

So you were a big Prince fan, But that also.

[Pedro Pascal]

But she was. No, she was the Prince fan.

[Tonya Mosley]

Okay.

[Pedro Pascal]

She was the huge Prince fan, which, by proxy, made me a big Prince fan.

[Tonya Mosley]

And that's around Purple Rain time.

[Pedro Pascal]

Oh, yeah.

[Tonya Mosley]

What were these movie nights like, these family movie nights?

[Pedro Pascal]

Well, Purple Rain is a perfect example of where we all went together. Like, my dad would try to, you know, take us on a school night whenever he got a chance to whatever he wanted to see. But Purple Rain was like, we're all going. You know, And I guess they're sort of, you know, my most special memories. We're very sort of like, moviegoing family. My older sister has a love of dance and did ballet, so we would go to the. As a child, she studied ballet, and so we would go to the ballet a lot. I hated it at first, until I saw, I think, a really hilarious production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and then started to kind of really appreciate the kind of storytelling that happened through dance.

[Tonya Mosley]

Did you ever dance?

[Pedro Pascal]

I didn't. I didn't dance. I mean, I danced, you know, like, at any chance I got.

[Tonya Mosley]

Yeah. To Prince and stuff.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pedro Pascal]

I danced around the house. I danced around my parents, parties, Christmas, New Year's, all that stuff. I never took class. But then in a performing arts program that my mother found that I went to, from my freshman year in high school to graduation, you had to study dance, you know, did west side Story, and I love dance, and actually got sort of really seriously into, I guess, what you would call sort of post modern style of improvisational dance in college. And that was the only work I could get when I graduated, actually were through movement professors and doing a lot of downtown stuff.

[Tonya Mosley]

When you say downtown, what do you mean?

[Pedro Pascal]

South of 14th Street, St. Mark's Church, Lower east side, East Village. Site specific performances. This piece called Demeter's Daughter that was conceived by a choreographer named Tamar Rogoff, who is a lifelong family friend and mentor to Claire Danes.

[Tonya Mosley]

And what kinds of stuff would you do for them?

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah, like postmodern dance. Like, you know, sort of create movement and dance. And then it wasn't the kind of thing like, this is the choreography. Learn it. It was like, let's move and let's write this together.

[Tonya Mosley]

Kind of like improvisation, but for the.

[Pedro Pascal]

Body, for body movement.

[Tonya Mosley]

I'm so fascinated about that physicality because there is a holding of the body in all the characters that you play. I'm thinking about in the Last of Us. Like, how would you describe what Joel is holding in his body?

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah, holding a lot of Trauma one. And then in a more simple way, this is a man who works with his hands. He's a contractor, and he builds things. He, I think, expresses himself through his physical relationship to work and to maintenance and that kind of thing. So it's sort of like understanding a person who works very roughly with his hands and is in sort of a very consistent relationship to physical labor, you know, in a way that he probably loves, because it's way easier than having a conversation.

[Tonya Mosley]

Right, right. But it's so fascinating about you and your history with dancing because, I mean, so much of. Well, so much of your acting is so physical. Like, I'm just thinking about a lot of films that you're in. There's so much silent power in what you're doing, but it's through your body that you're telling the story.

[Pedro Pascal]

Well, Game of Thrones being a perfect example of, like, experiencing, you know, that level of exposure for a part. And one would argue that what the role is most known for is the fight.

[Tonya Mosley]

Yes.

[Pedro Pascal]

And that is more dance than you can possibly believe if you don't want to get killed anyway, you know, that is physicality in its purest form, and that is choreography in its purest form. So it's just ironic because I was already pushing 40 when that job happened. And so the doors that opened were, frankly, leaning in the world of action and a lot of highly, highly, highly physical choreography in the experiences. More so than I could have ever imagined, having had a lot of, like, fight choreography on stage, you know, in Shakespeare and all that. But this was like, another level your.

[Tonya Mosley]

Family history is fascinating because your parents fled Chile when you were a baby growing up. What was the story that you heard?

[Pedro Pascal]

You know, I didn't hear any stories about it, actually. And I hear stories now because I ask. And I also am met with the sort of desire to share and desire to tell what it meant for, you know, my father's sisters to say goodbye to their brother in that way, for my mother's family to live in the terror of the experience of her going into hiding.

[Tonya Mosley]

Because what's the story? Because the story that you came to learn, your parents were very young, you were a baby, and they fled from South America to the United States to Texas.

[Pedro Pascal]

Yes. We had asylum in Denmark first and were likely to, you know, stay there, were it not for somebody that helped hire my father into his lab in San Antonio, Texas.

[Tonya Mosley]

Why were your parents exiled?

[Pedro Pascal]

Oh, well, they were involved in the opposition movement against the military regime under Pinochet. They were Allende supporters and, frankly, just very young and liberal. And my mother's side of the family, there's a cousin of my mother's, Andres Pascal, who was a leader of the opposition movement. And so that I think, just by association, sort of could put the name and family in peril. But there was someone who brought an injured man to my mother's and father's home, knowing that my father was doing his residency at a hospital and asked for help, and he'd been shot in the leg, and it was a priest who brought him over to our house. And, you know, at this point, I'm an infant, so obviously I have no memory, but the priest was taken into custody, and he was tortured, and he gave names. And then they went looking, looking for my parents. And, you know, and so they. They had to, you know, go into hiding and find a way to survive. There are a lot of details that kind of go into it that create, like, such a fascinating story. The odd circumstance of my father finding out that someone was in the lobby asking for his name. And a patient that kind of, like, interrupted the moment where the officer wanted to was about to ask my father who he was or his name, if he was doctor, in fact, Dr. Balmaceda. And a patient that was like, you know, I'm in pain, and no one is attending to me. And I almost wonder. I mean, you know, you got to be careful because, you know, how much story do you build around it and what's really real? But the. This was this chance circumstance that gave my father the opportunity to sneak out the back to go and get my mother and Go into hiding. And they were right because they came to the house, they tore everything apart, and it was about six months before they found a plan to sneak into the Venezuelan Embassy and claim asylum and be reunited with my sister and I.

[Tonya Mosley]

What a story to learn in adulthood. It's not a lore. It's not a story you grew up knowing and having pride in.

[Pedro Pascal]

Right. I had a sense of it. I remember one very, very vivid experience of seeing the movie Missing. See, this is the funny thing is that, like, here we are, this nuclear family in the suburbs of San Antonio, Texas, with this not distant legacy of escape. I mean, the dictatorship was. Was continuing on, and I'm seeing a movie about it in my house. And Sissy Spacek is the size of my mother.

[Tonya Mosley]

Right.

[Pedro Pascal]

Because the age of my mother and the movie missing. Right. By Costa Gravas.

[Tonya Mosley]

Yes.

[Pedro Pascal]

And her, you know, being out in the streets past curfew by accident and her life being in peril and me somehow putting all of that together and understanding that sort of placing my mother in that circumstance as a child and just like, absolutely falling apart.

[Tonya Mosley]

How old are you?

[Pedro Pascal]

When the movie came out in, I must have been like, I don't know, maybe seven.

[Terry Gross]

Wow.

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah. It was a different time. Parents were letting us. Parents?

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, I know.

[Pedro Pascal]

Parents were letting us watch whatever was on tv.

[Tonya Mosley]

But I'm saying, wow, about you piecing that together and somehow understanding Sissy Zabasek is my mom.

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah. Feeling that way, feeling that way, feeling that way in that moment. And it had to stop. I fell apart.

[Tonya Mosley]

You literally started crying.

[Pedro Pascal]

Oh, yeah, I started. I mean, it was like, you know, I think something, you know, bordering on howling. I was so. Did you ever get traumatized by the idea? I don't know. I never got a chance to talk to my mom about it the way I'm talking to you about it, you know, unfortunately, I wonder if she understood. But. Yeah, I guess just to answer it simply, no, not really.

[Tonya Mosley]

When you say, you wonder if she understood. What do you mean?

[Pedro Pascal]

If she understood that I was kind of a son who was scared for her, you know, and kind of absorbing the context, but not really knowing how to process the context.

[Tonya Mosley]

Movies have been so important to you in that way.

[Pedro Pascal]

Everything.

[Terry Gross]

Yeah.

[Tonya Mosley]

They allow you to understand the world.

[Pedro Pascal]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tonya Mosley]

And now you're doing that for other people. Do you ever think about it like that?

[Pedro Pascal]

I feel like, profound gratitude to be doing something that I love to do and the people that I get to do it with and being sort of always a part of an experience, you know? Whether it's well received or not, but always like everyone involved is putting their entire selves and bodies into, you know, and cares so much about making it. And it's very bonding, it's very fun and I don't know anything else.

[Tonya Mosley]

Oh, Pedro, this has been great.

[Pedro Pascal]

Thank you. Tanya, thank you so much for having me. I can't tell you this is part of my little pinch me moment. I told you before we started, I've been listening to NPR through my parents since I was a teenager and my entire adult life. I've been listening to FRESH AIR forever. And getting to sit here with you is very special.

[Tonya Mosley]

Pedro Pascal stars in the Last of Us. His recent films are the Fantastic Four, First Steps, Eddington and Celine Song's Materialists. Fresh AIR Weekend is produced by Teresa Madden. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our managing producer is Sam Brigger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our inner interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Meyers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez Whistler with Terry Gross. I'm Tanya Mosley.

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[Tonya Mosley]

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[Ben Stiller]

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