The Pedro Pascal and Omar Apollo bromance seemingly came out of nowhere.
For years months, the self-appointed keepers of pop-culture on Gay Twitter X scratched their heads in confusion, desperate for the lore behind (and nature of) the singer-songwriter and Mandalorian actor’s kinship.
Well, today, we have an answer. Kind of.
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We begin our search with Apollo’s sophomore album God Said No, which dropped today and includes a collaboration with Pascal, simply titled “Pedro.”
The melancholic tune clocks in just under two and a half minutes, beginning with a synth-drenched verse by Apollo.
Listen.
Evoking the sounds of heaven, the “Evergreen” singer first wonders aloud, “If meadows was a man / Would you trade me for your land?” Then, with perhaps a hint of innuendo, he adds, “If I could get the chance / Would you train me with your hands?”
Next, a wistful instrumental comes in, and Pascal begins to emotionally recount a low point in his life.
“I’m not sure how to start this,” he begins, painting a picture of a moment during “second-wave COVID ” when he was in between jobs and traveling between Budapest and Switzerland.
“I’d had an incredible time on a job, but my heart was, uh, pretty shattered by something,” he goes on to explain, revealing the pain literally brought him to his knees near a park in a residential area.
“I remember asking the park bench to come alive and save me, ’cause I didn’t feel like there was kind of any moment past that moment,” he admits, adding, “But there was … I can’t believe I’m sending you this.”
The fact that Pascal would share such a candid moment with Apollo, let alone permit him to use it on the album, speaks to their closeness.
As Apollo revealed in a recent interview with Zane Lowe, their connection started after Pascal was tasked with speaking to the singer for a profile. Apollo got the idea to collaborate with The Last of Us actor on the track while giving him a preview of the album.
“I played him ‘Glow’ and that song is about grief and the complexities of it,” Apollo said. “I had the idea that it would be really beautiful if he said a story about grief –– a colossal loss.”
And the rest is history!
Although Pascal is yet to directly address the personal story, he called Apollo “a very good friend” in a recent interview with GQ.
“He’s … like me, someone who grew up bilingual,” Pascal explained. “He loves Corona [beer], I’ve had Corona with him. And so I love being a friend in each other’s journeys and uplifting whatever I can creatively, supporting whatever creative experience that he’s having as a friend, as an artist, as a Latino, as a Spanish speaker.”
OK, so, despite the hype, it sounds like “Pedro” is not the romantic confirmation some people expected.
It’s just two talented (and handsome) friends bonding over art and sharing their stories with the world. Still, it’s clear the contribution means a lot to Apollo.
As he told Zane Lowe, “It’s a very beautiful story. It’s very heart-shattering.”
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