Best known for portraying the roles of Oberyn Martell in Season Four of the HBO series Game of Thrones, Pedro Pascal, is back in Season Three of the Netflix series Narcos. The 42-year-old has appeared in several television series, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Good Wife, Homeland, The Mentalist, and Graceland. The Chilean-American actor discusses his journey so far as Javier Peña, what’s in store for his character this season, and how different the Cali cartel is, to begin with.
What is it about this character that really intrigued you and made you want to take on the role?
It’s interesting that the experience of becoming a part of the project was totally a gut instinct experience because I’ve been allowed to develop the character that I play who’s based on a real life character who’s on the ground floor of the investigation for Pablo Escobar.
It’s interesting to have been given complete license to interpret the tone of the character while staying committed to actual events and real history. I’ve never experienced anything like it, because no one said, “Listen, Peña is like this.” you know?
There were circumstances that he’s absolutely tied to because it’s so fact- based storytelling and there’s so much history involved in Narcos, but tonally we were given complete freedom to interpret it on our terms.
Season Three feels very different.
I think Season Three is very different than Season One and Season Two for our audience, for the characters involved, and for the surviving characters involved. I think it’s as much of a surprise to Peña as it is to anyone that he is still here, especially for all the stuff that he got into in Season Two. And you know, to kind of break the rules as much as he did, and for that to turn out to be the very reason he’s promoted, in a way is as much as a surprise to him as it will be to our audience.
Being in an elevated position, as far as his environment is concerned, is also strange for him in that there is a fish out of water feeling for Peña because this isn’t a person who does his job in a tie you know, or from an office.
It’s just a different beast as far as the Cali Cartel is concerned. We’re not dealing with one king, we’re dealing with four. And it’s far more insidious and its reach is more expensive. And different for the characters, because it’s just a completely new beast. So it’s a new fight, it’s a new war, it’s new tactics, new strategy and I think the characters are discovering that at the same time as the people watching the show.
Tell us a little bit about that kind of perception of you know having taken down Pablo, how he feels after the death.
I think the death of Pablo Escobar is a very complicated issue for the character Javier Peña because one, it is the achievement of the ultimate goal and two, he wasn’t there. There wasn’t anyone that could be more a part of it, and yet he wasn’t a part of it, which is true to the story. And I think that somehow opens up a sort of midlife crisis, a kind of depression. And strangely, an opportunity that is bittersweet, and yet a chance for him to kind of redeem himself in a way.
Now after the death of Pablo Escobar can you set up what happens to the cocaine industry? Big things are gonna’ happen.
Yeah, what happens after Escobar’s death I think is very eye -opening for our audiences and for the characters involved in the story because everyone has their eye on this prize and no one really, really stops to think about what the actual result of it is.
You think that you have a king that you need to take down and once he’s gone it’s over. And, the irony is that it has only given room for people who are arguably better at the business to take over and to make even more money.
Tell us a little more about who the Cali Cartel is and how they’ve been operating.
I think the best way to put it is saying you cut the head off a snake and three more appear, in this case, four, and the teeth are sharper. I’m very glad that was highlighted because that is the best way to describe it 'cause, the way to describe the Cali Cartel is a rival cartel to the Medellin Cartel that exists in such contrast, almost in every way to the Medellin Cartel, over which Pablo Escobar was king. Narco terrorism was being basically invented by the likes of Pablo Escobar and his Narco traffickers. Cali was different. The Cali people were “businessmen” and they looked like it. They played the role very, very well.
And how does Peña respond to the rise of this Cali Cartel?
The way that Peña responds to the rise of the Cali Cartel, I think, is something that he sees coming, you know. He sees it happening but everyone’s got their blinders on because they come so close to like the largest beast that man has ever known as far as their world is concerned.
You mentioned that they’re like businessmen, what is it about this new cartel that makes them so dangerous?
I think the most dangerous thing about the Cali Cartel is how insidious their operation is. Playing the role of businessmen so well is because they know what they’re doing. They have the entire city under surveillance, their operation works perfectly and for it to work perfectly, their reach has to be very far. That means they’ve gotta’ be in the pockets of politicians, they’ve gotta’ be in the pockets of businessmen. Season Three starts today on Netflix.