Who Is Pedro Pascal, The Red Viper On 'Game Of Thrones'? [SPOILER]

Game of Thrones fans were crushed after Sunday night’s episode marked the death of a new, but beloved character, Prince Oberyn Martell, aka The Red Viper, and actor Pedro Pascal is telling all.

Pedro Pascal On “The Mountain and the Viper”

Prince Oberyn parished Sunday night in the epic episode “The Mountain and the Viper,” when he lost his battle against famed gladiator, The Mountain, due to a foolish error and his desire for revenge. To prepare for the battle sequence, Pascal worked with a Wushu trainer in L.A. before flying to Croatia to begin shooting. The shoot itself spanned over three days, but surprisingly did not result in any onset injuries.

“It was really intense.… We were in the arena that was exposed to sunlight for the entire day. [I was] layered, though agile, but still covered in armor and flying around like a wasp. Just flying around this 6-foot-8, 420-pound guy, who literally had a sword that went from the ground to my chin,” Pascal recounted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

GoT fans are reeling from the loss and the death, which some are describing as the most horrible thing to ever occur on Game of Thrones, an HBO series notorious for gruesome deaths.

Who is Pedro Pascal, the actor behind the Red Viper?

Though Pascal has spent a great deal of his career working in the theater, in the last 10 years he has become a TV regular with multi-episode guest arcs on The Good Wife, Graceland and The Mentalist before he landed what could arguably be his biggest role to date as Oberyn on Game of Thrones.

“Playing the best character I have ever played in the greatest cast I have ever been a part of, and working with HBO and [showrunners] Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] was an opportunity of a lifetime. I wouldn’t know how to simplify that into a pat answer,” Pascal told EW of his experience on Game of Thrones.

Pascal was an avid fan of the show before he was cast, and previously admitted to taking a seat in the throne once he got on set.

“There was a little bit of a battle going in, because I had a job to do – and hopefully do well – while sort of geeking out in my brain about the size of the throne. And like, seeing Cersei in the flesh, that kind of stuff,” the actor told MTV News.

Pascal was born in Santiago, Chile, but he grew up in the U.S. and currently lives in New York City, where he has lived for the past 20 years. Though his first language is Spanish, Pascal is fluent in English and does not speak with an accent in real life.

Pascal recently participated in his own Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), during which a fan asked Pascal if he would be responsive if someone asked for a photo with him.

“Absolutely. It would be my pleasure. So far everyone has been really polite and sweet, and it’s my pleasure, and I mean that,” Pascal said.

In the AMA, Pascal also revealed that he was a competitive swimmer when he was young, but dropped the sport for acting when he was a teenager. He also dished about his love of dogs (he’s allergic to cats), his love of reading (his favorites include Crime and Punishment and Jane Eyre) and he based Oberyn’s accent off his father’s Latin American accent.

Though his time on Game of Thrones is over, Pascal has moved on to his next project. The actor will star in Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare in the Park.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.