Pedro Pascal acting silly, flirty, and adorable at Cannes is nothing new—this man has made a career out of being silly, flirty, and adorable in public! But fans aren’t wrong in feeling like the long game of edging is almost over. As in: is this man going to come out officially? Does he even need to?
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“I like the way he’s not really out but also not really closeted,” one user wrote in reference to the fruity video of Pascal playing with and mime-licking a rainbow glow stick at Cannes. And yes! It’s very old school, it’s very midcentury, it’s very plausible deniability. Pedro Pascal might very well be our version of Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, or any number of classic Hollywood leading men who never formally came out, but made their queerness understood in covert ways throughout their lives.
But the same reason some are excited about Pascal’s relationship to the closet is, for others, a sign of cultural backsliding. In the words of the brilliant TikTok commentator Tell The Bees, “if everyone’s queer, no one is queer.” Yes, labels can be a problem, but also labels can be helpful in a world that’s aggressively queerphobic.
So yes, obviously Pedro Pascal doesn’t need to do anything. He doesn’t need to come out, and we can appreciate his queer signaling without feeling like it’s aggressive queerbaiting on the level of a Benson Boone or Harry Styles. But it would be a cool political statement—especially for someone so politically active and outspoken in others—for him to confirm what most of us are already pretty sure about.
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