Pedro Pascal Reveals the “Psychotic” Way He Learns Lines

When it comes to the art of acting, every actor in the industry is going to have a different way about how they go through their process. You’ve heard the stories of method actors like Jared Leto, who perhaps push the boundaries a little too far with gifts to castmates. Then there’s the case of Pedro Pascal, who uses a self-proclaimed “psychotic” method when it comes to learning his lines. In a recent fundraiser for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Pascal revealed he memorizes his line by writing down the first letter of each word in a sentence.

“I bet I could show you a psychotic physical example of what I now have to do to learn my lines. This is like a psycho first letter of every word. You see the letters, right? Basically, I’m the Uniabomber,” Pascal jokes in the video. “You use the first letter of each in these towers or columns, I guess, and it’s this very, very tedious way of making yourself learn the line so that you’re not making choices. It’s not even sort of artistic, it’s just this really technical way I’ve had to acquire because of that terrible experience of forgetting my lines.”

The next project Pascal will have to memorize lines for is Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four, a picture where he’s playing family patriarch Reed Richards. He’ll be joined in the film by Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing). Matt Shakman (Marvel’s WandaVision, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) is directing the 2025 MCU movie written by Foundation creator Josh Friedman and Jeff Kaplan (Disaster Wedding) & Ian Springer (Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship).

“There are a lot out [of rumors] there. It’s pretty crazy,” Shakman told ComicBook last February. “As I learned from WandaVision, too, it is so lovely to see the level of engagement that fans have with this material, because I’m a fan too, and I have been reading Fantastic Four since I was a kid. I love these characters. I love the chance that we have to bring them to the MCU and I really want to get it right and I know that everybody out there is really excited and feels passionate in the same way wanting to get it right. And so I encourage it. I think it’s great.” 

The Fantastic Four is currently scheduled to be released exclusively in theaters on July 25, 2025.