Game of Thrones: Pedro Pascal Got an Infection From Letting Fans Stick Their Thumbs in His Eyes

These days, most people know Pedro Pascal for playing Din Djarin in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Joel Miller in The Last of Us, but many fans were introduced to him as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones. Pascal's character had one of the most gruesome deaths in the series when he went up against The Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson). While Oberyn had the upper hand for most of the fight, he eventually got too cocky, and The Mountain ultimately won by sticking his thumbs in his eyes and crushing his skull. Pascal recently took part in The Hollywood Reporter's actor roundtable alongside some big names in television and revealed he used to let fans put their thumbs in his eyes until it led to an infection. 

"I remember early – because of Game of Thrones and the way that my character died – people were super into taking selfies with their thumbs in my eyes," Pascal revealed. "At first I was so kind of earnest and happy about the success of the character in the show I would let them ... In New York of all places!" He added, "And I remember getting a little bit of an eye infection and then it stopped." 

Previously, Pascal was a guest on Hot Ones and talked more about his iconic death scene.

"I got my head crushed in, it was the best part of the day," Pascal shared. "It was so hot when we were shooting that scene. You know, he's over me and he puts his thumbs in my eyes and they've got tubing through his body into his forearms to his thumbs just pumping cool blood." He added of his scene partner Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (The Mountain),"[He's] the gentlest guy ever, felt no pressure at all. He was so hyper-aware of it, I couldn't even feel his weight on me as he basically straddled me. There were all of these fleshy bits that they were kind of placing over my face and pumping blood so that it would pool and spread through the amphitheater from the side good wide. And that sort of shot of the two of us from above. I was dead asleep because it was so hot. This stuff was so cooling to the touch and you had to be really, really still."

Pascal added, "And that was the most relaxing and knowing also that we had gotten to the end of this four-day fight that we were shooting out there. It was very cathartic and I went into the deepest sleep I've been in. I realize now that because I'm not a very good sleeper, I need to be laid out with pieces of flesh, gelatinous, cool to the touch. Face meat and pooling blood and maybe you'll finally get a good f*ckin' night's sleep."

Pedro Pascal on Being The Internet's "Daddy"

During the round table, Pascal also addressed the "Daddy" memes that fans have dedicated to him. 

"Yeah, I am having fun with it. [The daddy thing] seems a little role-related," Pascal explained. "There was a period where the Mandalorian is very daddy to baby Grogu, and Joel is very daddy to Ellie. These are daddy parts. That's what it is." When asked by Jeff Bridges if he was a daddy, Pascal replied, "I'm not a daddy and [looks directly to the camera] I'm not going to be a daddy."

Game of Thrones is currently available to stream on Max.