Pedro Pascal: Red Viper Role 'Broke My Heart'

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Pedro Pascal at Comic-Con 2014

Image: Mashable, Chris Taylor

By Chris Taylor2014-07-25 02:01:12 UTC

It isn't often you get a rock star-style reaction to walking into a bar and pulling a pint of beer. But that's what happened at Comic-Con Thursday when Pedro Pascal — AKA the Red Viper, the late, lamented Oberyn Martell of Dorne — poured the first few ceremonial glasses of Game of Thrones ale.

"Yeah, this is my life now," Pascal joked to Mashable after fighting his way through a cheering throng of fans who rushed the bar at the Wired lounge in the Omni hotel. "Every time I go outside, people start cheering. It's just a regular day."

See also: When 'Game of Thrones' Fans Saw That Red Viper Scene...

Pascal was visiting Comic-Con for the first time to pour and sup Valar Morghulis, the fourth in a series of Game of Thrones-themed ales. But the crowd seemed less interested in the beer than in yelling out post-game advice about the Red Viper's shocking fatal duel with the Mountain — "You should have just killed the guy! Why didn't you stop talking and kill the guy!"

But Pascal took the Monday-morning quarterbacking in stride. "It's nice to see people disappointed," he smiled — and he meant it, in a way, because the alternative would mean he hadn't made an emotional connection to the audience. "It's a reflection of being part of a show as good as Game of Thrones."

Did Pascal know the end was coming for the Red Viper? Yep — he read through the entire script before he auditioned for the role, then followed up with the Viper's chapters (told from Tyrion Lannister's point of view) in A Storm of Swords. "I knew what was coming because you have to protect yourself emotionally" with a show this brutal, he says.

But he wasn't completely protected from the impact of the Viper's crushing death. "I fell in love with the character," he said sadly. "He broke my heart."

So say we all, Pedro. So say we all.

See also: The Red Viper and the Mountain Hug It Out in Real Life

Next up for Pascal: he's starring in a Netflix original series called Narcs , about the capture of Pablo Escobar, which will take up most of the next year. He's thrilled to be working for the new streaming network powerhouse, which he says takes the same "enormous creative risks" that HBO started taking.

After that? There's nothing lined up, but Pascal is a huge fan of the comic The Preacher — a book with "Game of Thrones-level darkness," he says — and is surprised that there hasn't yet been a movie or TV version.

"I would do everything I could to audition for the role of the Preacher," Pascal says. You heard it here first, network executives.

BONUS: 5 'Game of Thrones' Facts Every Fan Should Know

Topics: Entertainment, game of thrones, sdcc, Television