People Are Coming To Pedro Pascal's Defense After Some Suspicious Backlash Against Him And Vanessa Kirby

Mom, can you come pick me up? People are being really weird about Pedro Pascal online and it’s giving smear campaign.

Man in a white suit and polka dot scarf on a blue background, wearing glasses and a red flower on lapel, at a celebrity event

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If you have the profound displeasure of still being on X, you may have noticed a number of posts that essentially try to say that Pedro touches his female costars inappropriately as a way to soothe his “anxiety” — with a lot of focus on his Fantastic Four promotional tour with costar Vanessa Kirby. One of the videos of the pair was even flagged for containing an AI distortion.

Two people sitting closely on a couch, one appears to be comfortable and smiling, while the other is affectionately kissing their cheek Justin Bieber / Via x.com

The posts twist what Pedro said about anxiety in a recent Men’s Health interview: “I was always one to reach out when I’m facing something that is challenging or making me anxious…I definitely kind of stopped doing that, and instead I’m doomscrolling, or looking for something to watch; looking for different ways to disassociate from the feeling I’m having. And then, when it started to feel so critical, I had to go back to what was always the comfort for me in life, which was engagement in my relationships, my friendships, and conversation and shared experience.” Touching, of women or otherwise, was not mentioned.

Two celebrities on a red carpet, one wearing a dark suit and glasses, the other in a flowing, textured dress, appear to be sharing a light moment

Lia Toby / Getty Images

The backlash further devolved into vitriolic, offensive posts about Bella Ramsey, with one post with 255k likes reading, “How come Pedro Pascal never gets anxiety around Bella Ramsey?”

Monica Schipper / Getty Images, Travis P. Ball / SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images

Similarly, others suggested that Pedro is not physically close with his male costars, which is demonstrably false (if anything, you could argue he is more physical with his male costars).

Theo Wargo / Getty Images, Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images for Netflix, Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Netflix

It’s actually not the first time similar jabs have been made at Pedro. As Vanity Fair noted, defenders of J.K. Rowling used a clip of Vanessa and Pedro at Comic-Con to suggest something untoward was happening after Pedro criticized the author for her anti-trans views. But Vanessa herself then said of them holding hands at the event, “What happened is we were both incredibly nervous going out in front of thousands of people who love this comic. He wanted me to know that we were in this together, and I found it a lovely gesture and was very glad to squeeze his hand back.”

Two actors on stage at Comic-Con. The woman is in a fitted black top and shiny skirt; the man wears a printed T-shirt, smiling with hand on chest

Jesse Grant / Getty Images for Disney

The conversation has seeped onto Instagram, where a quick look at Pedro’s comment section reveals a lot of spam-like behavior:

Top image: Person driving, looking serious. Bottom image: Dog appearing disgusted, glancing sideways

Of course, what the “groping” posts fail to acknowledge is that touching in and of itself isn’t an issue; it’s consent (or lack of it). There’s nothing to suggest that Pedro’s costars feel anything but comfortable around him.

Person gesturing with hand near face. Tweet text discusses Pedro Pascal's non-sexual affection towards women, contrasting men's general perceptions

It got to the point where Pedro’s fellow Marvel actor, Simu Liu, posted seemingly in defense of him:

Simu Liu tweet criticizing unjust hate towards individuals experiencing public visibility during press tours

It’s worth noting that the effectiveness of the attacks on Pedro’s reputation were quickly questioned by many:

Parody account tweet humorously dismisses someone's hypothetical complaint about Pedro Pascal

Some even speculated that bots might be driving the negative posts:

Tweet expressing disbelief about a coordinated hate campaign against Pedro Pascal, likening it to a meme

Given that many accounts posting negative things about Pedro contained other sexist or anti-trans content, you might be asking…why? That’s not clear right now, but it’s worth noting that Pedro has been outspoken about trans rights and Palestine, and he is firmly against Donald Trump.

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