How ‘Game of Thrones’ Fans Gave Pedro Pascal an Eye Infection

Actor Pedro Pascal is willing to do a lot for his fans, but during his time on Game of Thrones, he may have taken it too far. In a new Drama Actors Roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, Pascal revealed that he posed for many photo ops where he let fans recreate his character’s death scene from the HBO fantasy drama. As fans will understand, he ended up with an eye infection and had to put the pantomimes to an end.

“I remember, earlier on, because of Game of Thrones and the way my character died… people were super into taking selfies with their thumbs in my eyes,” Pascal said in the roundtable. “And at first, I was so earnest and happy about the success of the character in the show, I’d let them! And then I remember getting a bit of an eye infection.”

Pascal laughed, as did the other actors on the roundtable including Jeff Bridges, Kieran Culkin, Damson Idris, Michael Imperioli, and Evan Peters, after hearing the story, Culkin remarked, “Wow, that’s a lot of trust.”

Pascal played the swaggering Prince Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones, and while his performance is well-remembered by fans, he only appeared in one season. Oberyn stood for Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) in a “trial by combat,” fighting one-on-one against Ser Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane (Hafþór Björnsson). The fight is iconic, as nimble Oberyn seemed to have bested the gargantuan Gregor until Gregor got a grip on his head. He then pushed his thumbs into Oberyn’s eyes, killing him in a death scene that clearly stuck with fans when they got the chance to take photos with Pascal.

Pascal just reflected on that epic duel earlier this year during an interview on Hot Ones. As heart-pumping as the action was on screen, Pascal revealed that he actually fell asleep while shooting that scene. He said: “It was so hot when we were shooting that scene. He’s over me and he puts his thumbs into my eyes and they’ve got tubing through his body into his forearms to his thumbs just pumping this cool blood.” Pascal said that the cool fake blood lulled him into “the deepest sleep I’d ever been in,” joking that maybe it was the secret to curing his occasional insomnia.

Pascal has been on an amazing run since leaving Game of Thrones, particularly in the last year with the premiere of The Last of Us on HBO and Season 3 of The Mandalorian on Disney+. Both shows are streaming now, as is Game of Thrones.