“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.”
PART OF THE fascinating, uniting thing about anxiety is that at one point or another, we all need to find our own way to live with and manage it—and that includes charming, man-of-the-moment movie stars.
Pedro Pascal has been everywhere lately—starring in season 2 of The Last of Us along with movies Materialists, Eddington, and now leading Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps—and he took some time (alongside Joaquin Phoenix) to talk with Men’s Health about his new movie Eddington, a surreal black comedy western conspiracy thriller set in the peak Covid moment of May 2020 that finds its characters dealing with just about every bit of anxiety someone could think up (a specialty of writer/director Ari Aster’s films).
Specifically, Pascal explained his own key to getting through those difficult moments and situations: Engaging with people on a level that he’d previously, for whatever reason, lost.
“I notice, especially during this period of the summer 2020, and the kind of isolation and how long my FaceTimes were, and my phone conversations, that I had started to make an effort to engage more, having previously lost that option in many ways,” he explained. “I can think back on high school, and college, and I was always such a talker with friends. Conversations on the phone, and then I don’t know how many days had gone by where we stopped doing that.”
Pascal continued, explaining that for all the pain and trouble that the pandemic brought, the circumstances did provide him with the silver lining of remembering the mode of connection that always helped him.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin – Getty Images
“It’s something I’ve held onto very much. I was always one to reach out when I’m facing something that is challenging or making me anxious,” he said. “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.”
Many people out there probably relate with Pascal’s mode of disassociating and finding some other way to clear their minds and break free of whatever cloudiness emerged. But they also can know that sometimes it just takes a good, clear, positive conversation with a friend or loved one to clear the mind on a whole different level—and that can be the solution no matter who you are, even if you’re not exactly playing Mr. Fantastic in a Marvel movie.
You Might Also Like