Pedro Pascal played Oberyn Martell in the series “Game of Thrones”, who is gruesomely killed in a fight. However, the actor found the shoot for it very relaxing.
In Season 4 of Game of Thrones, Oberyn Martell, played by Pedro Pascal, engages in a duel against Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane (played by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson).
Martell dies in the bloodiest way: his eyes are gouged out by his opponent and his skull is crushed. A scene that is considered one of the most brutal in the series and shocked many viewers.
In an interview with First We Feast on March 9, 2023, Pedro Pascal spoke about shooting the scene and why he found it so pleasant.
“The Best Part of the Day”
Although the scene with the brutal end of the character ultimately looks simply unpleasant, it was very relaxing for the actor to shoot. It was even “the best part of the day” for him.
When the scene was being filmed, it was quite hot, which is why Pascal was pleased with the small cooling effect of the fake blood:
He [Björnsson] is above me and pressing his thumbs into my eyes, and they have hoses through his body into his forearms to his thumbs, which pump this cool blood.
Pedro Pascal via YouTube
Pedro Pascal added that Björnsson is “the sweetest guy ever,” who was very careful not to apply any pressure to the eyes.
You can watch the video on YouTube where Pedro Pascal talked about the shoot. Skip to 8:40-10:38:
To portray the effect of the crushed head, small pieces of meat were placed on Pedro Pascal’s face, which also had a cooling effect.
Additionally, fake blood was pumped onto the ground to simulate the growing pool of blood around the lifeless character.
Pedro Pascal stated that filming this was so relaxing that he simply fell asleep. This was partly due to the cooling elements on his face, and partly because the actor had to lie still on the ground.
That was the most relaxing thing ever. And also knowing that we had reached the end of this four-day fight that we were shooting out there.
It was very cathartic and I fell into the deepest sleep I’ve ever had.
Pedro Pascal via YouTube
The already brutal death scene of Oberyn Martell was supposed to be even more gruesome, as you can read here from our colleagues at Moviepilot.
Afterwards, Pedro Pascal joked that during the filming of Game of Thrones, he might have found a technique to help him sleep better in the future:
“I’m realizing right now that, because I can’t sleep particularly well, maybe I need to lie down with pieces of meat, gelatin, cool meat on my face and pools of blood, and maybe then I can finally sleep properly.”
However, the character’s on-screen death of Oberyn Martell also had unpleasant consequences for the actor. Fans wanted to recreate the death scene in photos, which led Pedro Pascal to develop an eye infection.
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