Wonder Woman 1984 will be gracing our screens Christmas Day. Pedro Pascal, who is playing Maxwell Lord, sat down for a virtual interview for Warner Bros. He discusses who Maxwell Lord is, how he gets into character, and what it was like on set.

Who is Maxwell Lord?

According to DC Comics, Maxwell Lord was first introduced in the 1987 issue of Justice League #1. Lord was an up-and-coming business man who ultimately ends up with the power to influence people’s minds. He uses his mind control to become one of the richest and most powerful people in the world.

Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord has a different story. Not much was said about the powers of Lord in this film. Pedro Pascal was asked who Maxwell Lord is and what his motivation was behind “having it all.”

Pedro Pascal responded:

“Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984 is an incredible creation and personification of an era that sells the dream of success. And [he] frames it in a very specific way at any cost. Get what you want, except that getting what you want is never enough.”

He then goes on to say, “Thankfully, because of the people behind making this version of Maxwell Lord, it’s not a two-dimensional experience. Although the villainy of greed can be so black and white and yet somehow they find a way of surprising you with this character.” Could audiences, perhaps, find themselves sympathizing with Maxwell Lord? Taking something like greed that seems so black-and-white and making it so much more will be quite interesting.

How does Pedro Pascal personify Maxwell Lord?

More often than not, it feels like actors enjoy playing “the bad guy.” This is true as well for Mr. Pedro Pascal. He was asked what it was like getting into the skin of this character.

Pedro Pascal responded with:

“It’s really fun to be bad. It is permission to go into the dark and express that darkness as honestly as you can and as humanly as you can.”

The script for Wonder Woman 1984  was so full, according to Pedro Pascal, that it was not so much about how he would become Maxwell Lord.

Next, he said:

“It wasn’t a matter of ‘Oh, how do I become this bad guy?’ It’s actually, ‘How do I achieve what I’m reading and what is being presented to me?’ because it’s so rich and so, you know, so whole that it really was simply an opportunity and a challenge to just fulfill it.”

What it was like working with Patty Jenkins

Pedro Pascal has been a fan of Patty Jenkins for a long time. He was asked about what it was like to work with such a phenomenal director. “Patty Jenkins is an actor’s dream,” was the first thing he responded with. Then, he goes on to say:

“She’s [Patty Jenkins] the kind of person who creates the environment where you’re willing to do anything because it’s safe and everything that you’re afraid of you know that you can face it because she’s there with the demand and with the answers and with the safety. It’s why performances in her movies are always next level because she knows how to draw that out of a person…”

Pedro Pascal also says that Patty Jenkins is the type of director that makes audiences want to go to the movies. He is right, of course.

Wonder Woman 1984 will no doubt be an epic, exciting, and gorgeous film. Wonder Woman 1984 will hit theaters Christmas Day. HBO Max will be also streaming it on the same day.

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