Pedro Pascal has caused three road rage incidents: ‘people are going through sh-t’


One of my most controversial opinions is that I do not have a crush on Pedro Pascal. He might be the Internet’s daddy, but he ain’t mine. I know a lot of you will worry that there’s something seriously wrong with me. But I don’t get the hype. I don’t dislike him, I think he’s cute. He just leaves me cold. I won’t deny, though, that he gives good interview. He always seems authentically himself and fully at home in his body, which is I think why so many people are attracted to him. All the coverage I’ve read of him makes him sound like an interesting dude and he’s always making other people laugh. He and Steven Yeun interviewed each other for Variety, probably to capitalize on Emmy buzz for The Last of Us and Beef. They like each other a lot, and bonded over being in zombie-themed projects (Steven was on The Walking Dead). Another subject that came up? Road rage. Apparently, Pedro is no stranger to road rage. He detailed a recent encounter with another driver that freaked him out.

Pedro Pascal is no stranger to road rage. The Last of Us star said he’s had three recent anger incidents while driving — one which ended with a slimy lesson learned.

In a conversation with Beef star Steven Yeun for Variety — while discussing the rage-fueled plot of the Netflix series — Pascal, 48, recounted his latest altercation on the road.

“Yesterday was a day. It was my fault,” he told Yeun. “I’ve had three incidents, and they’ve all been my fault.”

This one, in particular, wasn’t mess free. “I cut somebody off, and I look over, and there’s a big glob of saliva — like visual effects put it there, man — just dripping down the side of the passenger window. And my sister was like, ‘F—!’”

Yeun, 39, chimed in to ask for details. “Holy s—. Like a glob from the driver’s side? He just hocked a hard loogie at you?” he asked.

When Pascal confirmed the other driver spit at him, he said the altercation didn’t actually make him angry at all — unlike the characters in Beef. It actually did the opposite.

“I was in shock. It didn’t trigger any rage out of me. It absolutely humbled me and shocked me, scared me a little bit, disturbed me,” Pascal said, later adding, “They want me to drink in their saliva. It made me feel guilty. I was like, ‘Gosh, people are going through s—.'”

[From People]

I feel like that’s sort of par for the course in LA. People are angry drivers there. (My family is from there and I grew up nearby so I am allowed to say that!) I’ve had scary road rage incidents myself. But the last time I cut somebody off kind of aggressively, the guy showed me his gun. So I’ve stopped taking chances. That wasn’t in LA but it was in the suburbs. I can’t decide how I feel about Pedro being an aggressive driver. It doesn’t fit with the public perception of who he is. But you do have to adopt a certain mentality in Los Angeles in order to get anywhere. He’s just driving the same way as everybody else. Of course that other driver spitting at him scared Pedro. Spitting at someone is one of the most disrespectful things you can do, in my book. But road rage is also on the rise lately and I think that’s partially a hangover from the pandemic. I think collective trauma and fraying of public trust have made us less patient with each other. People seem to have shorter fuses now. I’m glad nothing worse happened to Pedro.

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45 Responses to “Pedro Pascal has caused three road rage incidents: ‘people are going through sh-t’”

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  1. MrsBanjo says:

    Spitting at someone was always disgusting to me but with covid? It’s just vile.

  2. CuriousCole says:

    Carina, I’m with you on not being on the Pascal daddy train!! I like him and wish good things for him, but it goes no further for me.
    As for road rage not fitting him – I admit I am a different, more heightened person when I’m stuck driving in crappy traffic with careless drivers Vs the too-nice me in any other situation. But spitting?? How degrading! Where do they learn it’s okay to do that???

    • Zazzoo says:

      I was fine. I could take or leave him. But the Last of Us wrecked me. I was so in love with Joel. Then I went back and rewatched Narcos and how did I not lust for this stunning man the first time around?

      • Flowerlake says:

        I thought he was somewhat attractive in GoT, but in the Last of Us he was just soooooooo attractive to me.

        I also played the game and game!Joel was just an interesting character. Pedro Pacal!Joel is so hot though.

        The Last of Us is a great game by the way. Really recommend it.

    • Elizabeth Phillips says:

      I thought he did a good job in GOT, but I’d pictured Silas Carson in the role, so Pedro never quite did it for me.

  3. ML says:

    I’m American, but have now lived in the NLs for about 2 decades…when I lived in the States snd when I have visited family and friends, I get reminded about road rage. I’ve seen some (mostly guys) people really lose it—the scariest was dome idiot who backed up an entrance ramp threatening to kill the guy who he felt cut him off. I have never, ever experienced any violent or life-threatening instances of road rage anywhere in Europe. There are some crazy drivers here, too, but people seem to lose their tempers less (they might gesture or give you the finger[s]) than in the States. Or at least that has been my experience.
    So when Pedro Pascal says he -caused- the road rage: I side-eye that. You wouldn’t say you madd someone hit you, right? PP needs to be more careful, but he didn’t force some idiot to lose his temper and spit.

    • manda says:

      so now I need to know, what/where is the NLs? Google isn’t helping me lol

      • manda says:

        the netherlands?

      • Flowerlake says:

        Small country west of Germany. Lots of cheese and tulips.

        Beware the bikes 😉
        There are more bikes than people and a huge amount of travel is done on them on a large network of designated pink bike lanes, with people holding all kinds of shit and other people on them.

        This network was created on purpose some decades ago so there would be fewer traffic jams by cars.

      • ML says:

        Manda, The Netherlands, yes.

        Flowerlake, Yes, we have an awesome network for bike traffic. And unfortunately, there’s still a ton of traffic.

      • Flowerlake says:

        @Manda, yes.
        It does help to keep it down a bit, seeing how densely populated it is, and it’s more environmentally friendly.

        Bikes can still be crazy though 😉

  4. SquiddusMaximus says:

    “I think collective trauma and fraying of public trust have made us less patient with each other.”

    Respectfully disagree. I think our socio-political system has emboldened the extremists and given them an environment to germinate their rage — without any real consequences. Being an a-hole is now fetishized among a certain demographic.

    I wouldn’t waste my breath or finger-strength seeking well-meaning explanations for this kind of behavior. That’s the soft underbelly of liberalism: We look for the understandable social rationale behind inexcusable behaviors, and that ends up accommodating them.

    • Shawna says:

      Why not all of the above? I agree with both of you.

    • Eurydice says:

      Where I live, there is almost no “certain demographic.” Yet, there are plenty of a-holes and lots of rage.

    • Mallory says:

      Agree with you, Squid. The celebration of abuse & violence has become real, appeasement of these sickos will get everyone taken down with them.
      Unfortunately, all of us live with the demographic of people who love to stew in racism & sexism (ie toxic masculinity) cuz the white patriarchy is everywhere to sooth the egos of weak people- if you don’t see it, you are not paying attention.

  5. Nanny to the Rescue says:

    So do I understand this correctly, the three incidents weren’t accidental, he is just generally an aggressive driver?

    As disgusting as spitting is, how much of a close call was that that the other driver actually managed to hit his window? Sounds dangerous.

    It also sounds like Pedro is a car accident waiting to happen. He should remember that he’s endangering others with cutting them off and similar antics. What if there were little children in other cars? Sheesh.

    • Betsy says:

      I was thinking the same thing. If three road rage incidents happen to one person in short order and it’s their fault, that’s not the fraying of the social fabric, that’s that person being part of the problem and actively fraying it! Stop driving like an aggressive dink and then decrying what happened!

    • FHMom says:

      I love him to pieces, but somebody needs to sit him down and talk to him. Or else he needs a driver. Causing 3 near accidents in a short span of time is nothing to brag about. Not cool, Pedro.

    • Bee says:

      It’s LA. You could get into three road rage incidents on the way to work.

      That said, it sounds like he needs to chill and not try to “save time” driving. You never really save any time. I met a limo driver who told me about a competition between limo drivers (who are required to drive in a chill manner) and race car drivers in rush hour traffic. guess what: nobody won! you can’t really get through traffic faster even if you drive like a jerk. people in LA should know this.

      I’ve driven on the freeways down there and I can tell you it’s not worth the hassle to be aggressive about it. leave a little early and you’ll be fine!

  6. Plums says:

    my scariest road rage experience was getting cut off and brake checked by someone I had accidentally cut off because they were in my blind spot, which I had failed to check because I was in a panic to get over because my exit was about to come up, which I hadn’t realized would happen because I was going somewhere I had never been before and on an unfamiliar part of the highway. This was years ago, before the ubiquity of phone GPS and we all printed out directions from mapquest.

    ANYWAY, I guess I must have almost hit them when I got over because the next thing I knew, this car just sped up beside my out of nowhere, pulled in front of me nearly on my bumper and slammed on their brakes. It completely freaked my out and instead of hitting them, I swerved into the exit I needed to take anyway and only put together what probably happened after the fact.

    Road rage is so scary. I’ve felt it myself, but it mainly stays confined raised blood pressure and cursing rather than retaliatory action. You just lose all sense of empathetic connection to people in cars, especially in traffic. Just gotta realize the most likely scenario is that no one else on the road is actually deliberately trying to be a dick to you personally. They’re either just making an honest mistake or are a selfish driver not intending to be a dick to any one person but are just a dick in general because they’re not thinking of other drivers at all. No one is going out of their way to upset random, specific strangers, so don’t take things so personally.

    • manda says:

      OMG a brake check. That’s just so dumb, like, they could have gotten hurt too, although it would have been assessed as your fault and it would have turned into a whole thing. Omg, I get nervous just thinking about that.

      I spun out once on the dc beltway going WAY too fast to get around someone, and then someone entered my lane. Thank goodness there weren’t that many cars on the road, it could have been a horrible accident. That was 15 years ago. I have calmed down but my goodness the DC area will drive you crazy, haha, pun unintended. Now that people are shooting when they’re pissed off, I really try to ease up on the anger

      Now, I have terrible anxiety in traffic, but more from feeling trapped and being unable to move freely. I used to smoke years ago, and I think that maybe helped with the rage and the anxiety? Because it’s not like the traffic has improved

    • tealily says:

      I feel like that’s more than partially on them for cruising in your blind spot!!

    • Bee says:

      I’ve been brake checked in my mom jeans style white minivan. fortunately on surface streets and I was able to handle it. the thing with it is that any time you rearend someone you are automatically at fault. which is probably why they do it.

      I drive like a grandma (to be fair, a rather peppy grandma, but still… I am very well behaved). I do not cut anyone off. I drive within the speed of everyone else on the road. so I’m always shocked when people are deliberately awful on the road. but it happens a lot. LA is especially bad in my experience. but tbh it happens everywhere in the US that I’ve driven.

  7. Danbury says:

    I love Pedro but maybe he should be a bit more careful while driving. We’re so used to cars that it’s easy to forget that they are actually extremely dangerous. Aggressive driving is never a good thing, unless you’re on the autobahn. And even then …

    As for not loving him Carina, I get that! I have a good friend who is obsessed with Ben Affleck and I just don’t get it. I’ll stick with my love for Pedro. We all have our tastes right? 😉

  8. Ghoulia Louis-Dreyfus says:

    I vividly remember an incident last year where I was in a right turn / straight lane, stopped at a red light. THE LIGHT WAS RED! But there was a break in traffic and when I didn’t zip out, the driver behind me absolutely blasted their horn and was yelling.

    I get very very nervous when I am stopped and waiting to turn, because if you dont take your life in your hands and move your ass ASAP, you’re gonna get a honking, that’s a thing around here. And car horns just make my bones jump out of my skin. I get so nervous waiting to turn because I don’t want cars to scream at me.

    • Erin says:

      I had this exact same thing happen to me getting off the hwy when I lived in the Chicago suburbs. I had my first born in the back and we were coming home from an appt for her and she was only a couple of months old so I wasn’t going to take chances like I used to, plus who likes it when they are going 60 and then someone pulls out in front of you and doesn’t have a chance to accelerate and you have to slam on the brakes?

      The guy behind me laid on his horn when I didn’t turn and then I waited until it turned green. He then gets into the left lane next to me to start screaming at me with his wife or girlfriend in the passenger seat and they had a toddler in the backseat. I was young so I started screaming back and then when we both got caught at the next light, we were both the first ones in line, he literally got out of his fucking car went around the front and was hitting the hood of his own car, got in front of my car and was screaming at me to get out of the car. This was also in heavy traffic so a shit ton of people were witnessing this and he did not give a fuck. This man literally wanted me. A smaller woman to get out of the car so he could what? Beat the shit out of me? And in front of his kid. All of this because I didn’t turn right on red. It was terrifying and this was like 11 years ago, I was shaking and crying when I got home with my daughter.

      • Ghoulia Louis-Dreyfus says:

        Saints alive, that’s terrifying!!!!

      • Bee says:

        OMG Chicago drivers are bonkers! I used to live there and we’d get into the right turn lane at an intersection, and the driver in the next lane over (the forward lane) would BLAST to get past us in case we were trying to get in ahead of them. we’d see drivers get into the turn lane to try to get past like one car. it was nuts!

        however, the parking back then was awesome. you could park anywhere you wanted and the worst thing that could happen was you’d get towed to a 24 hour tow lot (usually not far away) and you could just pay them $20 to get your car back. and it might not even happen. it doesn’t work like that any more, but, yay, clubbing in Chicago in the ’80s.

  9. salmonpuff says:

    I cared nothing about Pedro until The Last of Us. Now I see the appeal.

    My last road rage incident was Saturday. I was driving on a main road when someone pulled out of a side street to turn left in front of me, way too close. I had to slam on the brakes and I honked to let them know I was there and they should a)LOOK before they turn, and b)Hurry. The guy slowed down and started screaming at me. His face was sooo scary. Luckily I was listening to my audio book and couldn’t hear him, but as soon as I could safely get away from him, I did. Really glad he didn’t have a gun. It’s tempting to look for explanations, but I think at the end of the day, some people are just a-holes.

  10. WiththeAmericann says:

    LA taught me to stop driving like a speed demon. Just assume it’s going to take 2 hours and never ever cut someone off if you can help it. there are tons of entitled jerks, especially going over the hill. Yeah you have to be able to assert yourself too so it gets tricky.

    I had to learn to calm the f down, he should too. I suspect he’s left out some of what is going on to be the recipient of three road rage incidents (post pandemic, recent?). That’s a lot.

  11. Stef says:

    Pedro had me after watching Narcos. He was just so damn sexy as an agent and speaking Spanish. He sounds awful to drive with though.

    Had a crazy road rage incident a few years ago. I was driving home on a sunny afternoon, windows down, and a dude in a black Porsche SUV turns left out of a parking lot and I just about hit him. I honked and gave the WTF gesture. He pulled beside me, stopped traffic in his lane, and yelled at me with so much anger, even though he was in the wrong.

    “Learn how to drive!” I yelled and kept driving. Two days later, at night, we heard rapid fire gun shots (very rare in Canada where I live) and heard sirens as people were gathering. Turns out it was the same dude who was shot up in his SUV. He was the leader of a local gang…

  12. Rnot says:

    Mark my words, he’s an ass and it’ll be revealed eventually just like Depp and Pitt and Costner and all the rest of the idolized men.

    • Dierski says:

      Why?

      As a southern Californian, I can attest that most people have experienced road rage here, esp in LA (my sister even had a recent hit and run)… but even if he’s a bad or aggressive driver, how would that put him on the same abhorrent level of abusers like Pitt/Depp/Costner??

    • The Recluse says:

      Wow. Such a cynic.

    • Nanny to the Rescue says:

      I worry about it too. I like him, he seems a decent dude, but so many good ones turned out to be the worst. I haven’t gotten over Jonathan Majors yet.

  13. It Really Is You, Not Me I’m says:

    I think the reason so many people have crushes on him is that he seems like such a nice person. I realize he caused this road rage incident, but someone actually spit at him and his reaction was not to be angry or mean or chase them down, But to show care that the other driver must be going through something to have done that. I feel like that’s not a common reaction and it stands out.

  14. JanetDR says:

    My trick for aggressive drivers is to imagine that they are on the way to the ER and give them all the space they need. Because I live in a rural area, that sometimes means I pull over and let them by. Makes both parties feel better!

  15. tealily says:

    I had a scary incident last year where a guy almost ran me out of my lane on a bridge, so I honked at him, and he got so pissed that he chased me through the city streets for miles. I was running red lights trying to get away from him. He finally pulled his truck perpendicular in front of me on a major road and hopped out!! I was afraid he had a gun, so I threw it in reverse and left down a side street. I kept repeating the license plate to myself while I called 911, but by the time they answered I could only remember part of it. I filled out a police report, but nothing ever happened. When I got to work, I just burst out sobbing. It was one of the scariest things that’s ever happened to me. People are f-ing nuts.

    Also, “One of my most controversial opinions is that I do not have a crush on Pedro Pascal.” — RUDE!

  16. Ange says:

    I think people are just angrier and losing their temper quicker everywhere. In my job I deal with people who act like absolute children over the stupidest things. Car parking, information sent to them that they don’t even have to act on, being told no occasionally, being asked to adhere to the terms of contracts they willingly signed. Not told mind you, just asked. I get angry phone calls, details of public spats where I’m asked to moderate like a teacher, emails and calls from higher ups because they’ve gone crying to them like it’s their parent…

    I’m generally a positive person and have worked in this environment for 15 years but this last year I think has just about broken me. If it wasn’t great money I’d be gone.

  17. Cora says:

    In the interview, Pedro also said that he’s “quick to anger” which goes very much against how he’s perceived from interviews. I suspect this guy’s persona in these interviews and who he is in real life are very different.

    • Polly says:

      I know almost nothing about this guy so I have no opinion about him one way or the other but people really, really need to stop putting celebrities on pedestals just because they come across well in interviews and have starred in a few of their favourite TV shows.

  18. E says:

    He lives in NYC, do we know this happened in LA?

  19. Patricia says:

    I’m just going to enjoy the hell out of my man crush,Pedro. I’m having so much fun with it. I’m an older woman so I’ve learned to appreciate all of him and Keanu Reeves i.e, looks,build,intelligence,sexiness and just the whole package.And yes ,I’ve apologized to both of them for objectifying them.🥵🤩😍🤗

  20. Gelya says:

    I agree Carina. He is cute but not my type. He seems to be a bad driver too, lol.