is one of the biggest names in showbiz right now, but as has explained, that wasn’t always the way.
star Pedro has inspired awe in viewers in the first season of the with a twist, where he stars alongside relative newcomer Bella Ramsey, as well as in spin-off The Mandalorian.
Meanwhile, Sarah has long made a name for herself in the likes of Bird Box, Run and as a recurring main character in the American Horror Story franchise.
The pair have part of a big friendship group obsessed with films and who would regularly go to the theatre together.
While trying to make it as an actor, Pedro waited tables at different establishments around New York City, getting fired from two, and often losing out on roles at the last hurdle – but his ‘delusional self-determination’ made him keep going.
He then moved to LA, where he secured small roles including in the likes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer – but when his mother died at home in Chile, he returned to be there for his young siblings. He was just 24.
Pedro then returned to New York, where he reconnected with his old friends, including Sarah, who reminisced on their friendship to , recalling how she would give him money for food.
‘There were times when I would give him my per diem from a job I was working on so that he could have money to feed himself,’ she said, adding that he has talked about the situation publicly in the past.
A per diem payment is generally given by an employer to an employee to cover daily costs such as travel and food.
Things, as we know, picked up for Pedro in a big way, however he struggled greatly with the idea that if he ‘didn’t have some kind of major exposure’ by the age of 29, ‘it was over.’
‘I was constantly readjusting what it meant to commit my life to this profession, and giving up the idea of it looking like I thought it would when I was a kid,’ he said in the same interview.
‘There were so many good reasons to let that delusion go.’
The Last Of Us quickly became the must-see show of 2023, with Pedro starring as a man tasked with escorting teenager Ellie (Bella) across a pandemic-stricken US, which has seen a virus turn the nation into flesh-eating zombies.
The contractor is smuggling Ellie across the country, desperately trying to keep her out of harm’s way, because she is resistant to the deadly disease and is thought to contain the answer to a cure.
Unsurprisingly, the series had and was handed a second season just over a week after it premiered.
