Quotes of the Day

Well I didn't intend to do back-to-back posts on Pedro Almodovar's forthcoming gay western short-film called Strange Way of Life, but I don't mind -- if I was given the opportunity to do posts every day on this thing I would! And thankfully, unlike with the Manu Rios interview I just posted, the dude asking questions of Pedro Pascal in Flaunt mag today was smart enough to bring up the movie. Here's their exchange:

Flaunt Magazine: That brings me to Pedro Almodóvar's upcoming queer cowboy short film, Strange Way of Life, in which your character is in love with another cowboy played by Ethan Hawke. I imagine this character is a kind of deconstruction of some of the masculine archetypes you've played in the past, including Joel?

Pedro Pascal: He was one of my biggest influences when I got a little older. I remember seeing Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown as a teenager with my family as a kid. He's one of my family's most beloved filmmakers. So it was an opportunity to get to work with one of if not my favorite filmmakers. Anything that he does, whether it's more dramatic, comedic, or thriller, is very personal to him. But in this piece, as in Dolor y Gloria [Pain and Glory], I feel there's a very personal expression that he is asking me to step into. This is the case even in wearing his colors. I've got this bright green denim jacket and red plaid underneath. I hadn't even realized it until later, when I wrote him and said, 'You're putting your colors on my body.' And he's like, 'Duh.' Stepping into something that is personal to him and achieving that for him, what that means takes care of itself in the telling. Whether it's breaking down tropes that you find in westerns or masculinity, sexuality between men, love. If you're anchoring yourself to a truthful telling of the story you're inherently expressing all of those things honoring them, deconstructing them, questioning them.

Flaunt: Was it easy or difficult for you to act attracted to Ethan Hawke?

Pedro: Very easy. That's a dumb question! Think about staring into those steel fucking blue eyes. Brown eyes are great! Chocolate chips! But, you know, that steel blue stare of his. Oh god, I don't mean to make Zoolander references while talking about this film.

Still not a lot of info on the specifics of the movie, but that's fine -- I mean I think we can all picture how this movie will play out if we just look at the words "Pedro Almodovar's forthcoming gay western." If any of those words mean anything to us then I think we probably aren't far off the map, what we're picturing. Anyway there are thirteen more photos of Mr. Pascal to be had, and if you hit the jump you may have them...