Pedro Pascal recalls falling asleep after landing ‘The Last of Us’ role, ‘I didn’t remember’

Pedro Pascal has earned massive praise for his performance in HBO's live-action series The Last of Us.

Pascal, 47, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday evening, following the release of the third episode, and shared an anecdote about how he landed the much-praised role of Joel.

The Chilean actor explained that he was working in London when he had a video call with showrunner Craig Mazin and video game creator, Neil Druckmann.

“I got sent these scripts and said - I was told that "Craig Mazin wants you to read the scripts. And if you like them, he'd like to talk to you." I loved Chernobyl. The miniseries that he -- show ran for HBO,' Pascal said.

"And they were like, 'Will you stay up a little bit?' At this point, it was getting kind of late in London. 'To talk to Neil Druckmann, the creator of the video game.' Genius."

The call resulted in Pascal being cast as Joel, and he was so excited that he had to take a sleeping pill because it had gotten so late. “But I get a call, and I get told that I got the job after I took the Ambien..."

Pascal added that he was "excited, I guess, but I didn't remember."

Pascal said that when he woke up the next day, he'd completely forgotten that he'd won the role, “the first thing that occurred to me, was like, 'Oh, man, I really want that job. And I'm in London. They're in LA. I'm going to wait by the phone all day long. This hasn't happened in a while, you know. I'm going to be longing. And I'm going to think about it all day long.'"

He checked his phone and realized the good news. “Oh yeah, I got the job.”

The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.