Mexico City has won another high-profile endorsement, this time from Chilean American actor Pedro Pascal.
The actor, who found himself on set in Mexico City’s Historic Center filming for his new movie, “De Noche” (“At Night”), declared Mexico City his “favorite city in the whole world” during a surprise visit from Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada.
El cine brilla más con el talento latino de actores como Pedro Pascal.
Su trabajo ha trascendido géneros, idiomas y fronteras, e inspira a nuevas generaciones que sueñan con interpretar historias desde su identidad y origen. ¡Desde la Ciudad de México te deseamos éxito en cada… pic.twitter.com/wmbMa1ew6Q
— Clara Brugada Molina (@ClaraBrugadaM) April 2, 2026
Brugada arrived on set to meet the actor and celebrate his birthday, hailing him as “one of the great Latino icons of the audiovisual industry at the international level.”
She also expressed the city’s support for Pascal’s new project, a period drama following the romance between a hardened detective (Pedro Pascal) and a young boarding school teacher (Danny Ramirez) who must flee together to Mexico from Los Angeles in the 1930s.
Pascal replaced actor Joaquín Phoenix — who developed the story along with director Todd Haynes — in the lead role after Phoenix unexpectedly quit in 2024.
“The movie wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Mexico, really. Mexico’s beauty, the city — it’s a visual magic that could not happen in any other country,” Pascal said.
During the encounter, Brugada revealed it was Pascal’s birthday and presented him with an artisanal figurine of an axolotl as a gift.
Known for charismatic portrayals of paternal figures, Pascal rose to fame in his early forties after starring in the series “Narcos,” “The Mandalorian” and “The Last Of Us.” His prolific acting career now includes starring roles in recent movies like “The Fantastic Four,” “The Materialists” and “Wild Robot.”
The production of “De Noche” in Mexico dovetails with President Claudia Sheinbaum’s support to the movie industry. In February, Sheinbaum announced a new tax incentive to boost film production in Mexico.
Mexico News Daily
