‘Narcos’ Pedro Pascal Compares Drama to ‘Game of Thrones': ‘We Don’t Need Dragons, We’ve Got Cocaine’
TCA 2015: Jose Padilha, Wagner Moura, stars and creators deep dive into history of war on drugs before Netflix series premiere
Linda Ge | July 28, 2015 @ 11:21 AM
Last Updated: July 28, 2015 @ 11:48 AM
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The cast and creators of new Netflix drama “Narcos” did not shy away from blasting the real world drug policies that led to the disastrous events on which their series were based.
“The drug policy that we have doesn’t work and it hasn’t worked in 30 years,” said executive producer and director Jose Padilha on stage during the show’s panel at the Television Critics’ Association summer press tour.
“Narcos” is a 10-episode drama following two parallel stories, the rise of Colombian drug kingpins, including Pablo Escobar (played by Wagner Moura), as cocaine arrived in Miami, and the American DEA agents sent down to the South American country to bring them down. The two central DEA figures are played by Boyd Holbrook and Pedro Pascal.
“If you follow the money down the chain, once it gets to Colombia, you see what the money does,” Padilha said. “The money buys weapons, it goes to corrupt politicians, it finances all sorts of things. The demand is inherently — the people doing the cocaine don’t have a good idea of what’s going on in Colombia. There’s a lot of alienation, a lot of isolation. There’s very little idea of what his money is doing, buying in another country.”
Moura echoed his EP’s take on the issue, placing the blame firmly on policy rather than on drug addicts.
“It’s a completely wrong policy,” he said bluntly. “I don’t know if it’s because you’re in the U.S., that you have less of an idea of like what’s going on in Mexico. We are all affected by the way U.S. deals with it. The way you deal with it here is completely different than how you deal with it down there. I don’t think the show has a responsibility, but it would be really cool if people start to think about it.”
“It shouldn’t be treated as a war, it should be treated as a health problem,” Padilha added. “Treating it as a war against the producers in Colombia, that hasn’t worked.”
The show also treads on shades of grey, and no character is 100 percent good or evil, the panelists all agreed. The EP in particular wanted to nip the idea of America as a savior in the bud.
“This is not the show about good American cops who go to a third world country to save the poor people from a bad guy,” Padilha said. “Nobody’s good in this show. Everybody’s grey. Escobar — one of the things he did was, he put a bomb on a plane to kill on person — he brought the whole plane down. He’s obviously an evil person, a sociopath, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a soft side, for his family.”
Inevitably, Pascal was asked to compare “Narcos” to his previous show, “Game of Thrones,” on which he played doomed Dornish prince Oberyn Martell.
“I think they’re very comparable to one another,” he confirmed. “That’s the size of the way this story exists. ‘Game of Thrones’ would take a lot of inspiration on what went down in Columbia and the war that was fought. It has that size … We don’t need dragons, we’ve got cocaine!”
Emmy 2015: The Nominees From 'Game of Thrones' to 'House of Cards' (Photos)
The 2015 nominees were announced Thursday, July 16. The 67th Annual Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on Fox on September 20 at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT.
Michael Kelly, "House of Cards"; Taraji P. Henson, "Empire"; Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent"
Netflix; Fox; Amazon
Drama Series
“Better Call Saul” “Downton Abbey” “Game of Thrones” “Homeland” “House of Cards” “Mad Men” (pictured) “Orange Is the New Black”
AMC
Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Jon Hamm, “Mad Men” Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards” Jeff Daniels, “Newsroom” (pictured) Kyle Chandler, “Bloodline” Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul” Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan”
HBO
Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Viola Davis, “How to Get Away With Murder” Claire Danes, “Homeland” Taraji P. Henson, “Empire” Tatania Maslany, “Orphan Black” (pictured) Elisabeth Moss, “Mad Men” Robin Wright, “House of Cards”
BBC America
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Jonathan Banks, “Better Call Saul” Ben Mendelsohn, “Bloodline” Jim Carter, “Downton Abbey” Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones” Alan Cumming, “The Good Wife” Michael Kelly, “House of Cards” (pictured)
Netflix
Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Joanne Froggatt, “Downton Abbey” Lena Headey, “Game of Thrones” Emilia Clarke, “Game of Thrones” (pictured) Christine Baranski, “The Good Wife” Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men” Uzo Aduba, “Orange Is the New Black”
Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent" (pictured) Louis C.K., "Louie" Anthony Anderson, "black-ish" William H. Macy, "Shameless" Matt LeBlanc, "Episodes" Don Cheadle, "House of Lies" Will Forte, "Last Man on Earth"
Amazon
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep" Amy Poehler, "Parks and Recreation" Lily Tomlin, "Grace and Frankie" Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie" Amy Schumer, "Inside Amy Schumer" (pictured) Lisa Kudrow, "Comeback"
Comedy Central
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Andre Braugher, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (pictured) Adam Driver, “Girls” Keegan-Michael Key, “Key & Peele” Ty Burrell, “Modern Family” Tituss Burgess, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” Tony Hale, “Veep"
Fox
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Mayim Bialik, “The Big Bang Theory” Niecy Nash, “Getting On” (pictured) Julie Bowen, “Modern Family” Allison Janney, “Mom” Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live” Gaby Hoffmann, “Transparent” Jane Krakowski, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” Anna Chlumsky, “Veep"