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Pedro Pascal says he got an eye infection by letting ‘Game of Thrones’ fans jam their thumbs in his eye.
The 48-year-old actor found global fame playing Oberyn Martell in the hit HBO show around 10 years ago, and said viewers became obsessed with recreating his character’s violent death – that saw him have his eyes gouged out by Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane – when they met him and asked for selfies.
He told The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Drama Actors Roundtable’: “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.
“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.”
Pedro appeared on the round table with Jeff Bridges, Kieran Culkin, Damson Idris, Michael Imperioli, and Evan Peters.
His tale prompted Kieran to say: “Wow, that’s a lot of trust.”
Pedro went on to play Din Djarin on ‘The Mandalorian’ and Joel on ‘The Last of Us’ after ‘Game of Thrones’.
His character’s death came in episode eight – ‘The Mountain and the Viper’ – of season for of the show.
Pascal has said despite the dramatic horror of his death scene with actor and Icelandic strongman Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, 34, he fell asleep while it was being shot.
He said on YouTuber Sean Evans’ ‘Hot Ones’ show: “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 added Hafþór was the gentlest guy ever”, and said the fake blood used in the scene was “so cooling” during the sweltering day it was show “I went into the deepest sleep I’d been in.”
He said: “I realise now, 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 I’ll finally get a good f****** night’s sleep.”
