PEDRO PASCAL'S MENTAL HEALTH COMMENTS FUEL DEBATE OVER CO-STAR INTERACTIONS

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Pedro Pascal’s affectionate gestures have sparked debate among commentators and fans: is it comfort, or has he overstepped?

Pedro Pascal's recent behavior while promoting his new movie has ignited a fierce debate online, following a string of viral videos showing the actor frequently touching and leaning into his co-star Vanessa Kirby during promotional events for their remake of Fantastic Four.

While some critics have cast his actions as invasive, others say the controversy reflects deeper issues around internet culture, celebrity scrutiny, and how society reacts to men speaking openly about their mental health.

The wave of online attention began after clips showed Pascal, 50, placing a hand around 36-year-old Kirby, or squeezing her hand during public appearances. These moments have since become the subject of viral social media videos and memes, with internet sleuths now dissecting whether Pascal's behavior towards pregnant and married Kirby crossed a line.

It comes as Pascal opened up about his anxiety in a recent interview with Men's Health. He spoke candidly about how interacting with others helped him cope with his symptoms and ground himself during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pascal said that when he feels anxiety rising up, being present with someone else helps him come back into his body, which many are interpreting as being what is happening in the videos of him touching Kirby.

One video, taken at San Diego Comic-Con, shows Pascal appearing anxious as he clutches Kirby's hand while stepping onto a crowded stage. The actor appeared to have been trying to ground himself, while Kirby, who has also been filmed initiating some of the physical contact herself, has only spoken positively about Pascal and has not indicated any discomfort with his actions.

Other older clips have since emerged showing him being affectionate with previous collaborators, including hugging, hand-holding and close talking—actions that fans once saw as charming, now reevaluated through a new lens.

Newsweek reached out to both Pascal and Kirby's publicists for comment and will update this article if they respond.

As the clips spread, the idea that he is touching co-stars to manage his anxiety took hold, and was turned into a meme, with people posting images of famous passionate embraces and captioning them with comments suggesting Pascal's anxiety is to blame.

However, many have also said that they feel people are just trying to diminish Pascal's success after years in the spotlight, as he has enjoyed a surge of popularity in recent years thanks to roles in The Mandalorian and The Last of Us.

"The frenzy around Mr. Pascal has a lot to do with several factors," Angela Betancourt, a global communications specialist and founding CEO of Betancourt Group, told Newsweek. "First, he has been in so many movies in the last two years alone, including Gladiator II and Materialists so if someone didn't know of him two years ago, then they do now.

"All of these movies have led to memorable press junkets, interviews, and very beautiful photoshoots of him looking sexy. His recent interview about his anxiety has created pockets of the internet now questioning his behavior and creating memes about him."

On TikTok, where discourse over the actor's actions has flourished, content creator and cultural commentator Naya Nweke voiced frustration with the tone of the backlash.

Pedro Pascal (L) and Vanessa Kirby (R) attend The Fantastic Four: First Steps World Premiere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California on July 21, 2025. Credit: GETTY IMAGES

"I personally don't know this man, OK, but all I do know is that if Vanessa herself was uncomfortable with everything going on then she would pull away. She seems to be kind of complicit in it, so why are people making memes?" She said in a recent post under her handle @nayawritessss.

Speaking to Newsweek, Nweke expanded on her point: "This post reflected how quickly social media can turn on someone, often with no actual evidence. Much of the outrage toward Pedro Pascal felt performative to me—rooted less in protecting Vanessa Kirby and more in people projecting their own dislike, jealousy, racism, or other underlying biases."

Neither Pascal nor Kirby appear to have addressed the debate at the time of writing, which could be adding to the split opinion, as viewers are left to interpret the clips in lieu of added context from those involved.

It comes at a moment of increasing awareness of the need for boundaries around personal space, and workplace protections, especially for women, in the entertainment industry.

Celebrities are also increasingly under a microscope. Social media has shortened the distance between stars and the public, but it has also turned every moment into content, every interaction into fodder for judgment. Online pile-ons have become routine, with commentators pointing out that public opinion often flips suddenly, with little warning.

Nweke noted this phenomenon directly: "Every celebrity has a short time frame before the internet tries to cancel them."

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