Prep thine loins, because Pedro Pascal is set to feature in a gay cowboy Western film. I repeat: a GAY COWBOY WESTERN FILM. And there’s a bloody TRAILER. I’m frothing at the mouth. FROTHING.
Premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in May, the 30-minute short film, Strange Way of Life, stars Pascal and eternal daddy of my spotless mind Ethan Hawke (!!!) as a gunslinger and sheriff who rekindle an old friendship after not seeing each other for 25 years. Hot cowboy lovers? Hell yeah.
The film is casually being directed by perhaps one of the most iconic queer film directors of all time, Pedro Almodóvar, who clearly got a hold of my private fanfiction.
The gay Spanish director already has two Oscars under his belt and famously turned down directing the eventual Oscar-winning film, Brokeback Mountain, cos Hollywood wouldn’t let him show the characters “fucking all the time“.
Oh, the things we’ve been robbed of.
Almodóvar says that Strange Way of Life is his “answer” to Brokeback Mountain, as well as the queer Western genre as a whole.
In a March appearance on Dua Lipa‘s At Your Service podcast, Almodóvar hinted at what audiences can expect in the short film. “This is a queer Western in the sense that there are two men, and they love each other, and they behave in that situation in an opposite way,” he said.
“What it has that most Westerns don’t have is the kind of dialogue that I don’t think a Western film has ever captured between two men.”
It sounds lovely and touching and beautiful and if his past comments about Brokeback Mountain are anything to go by, I’m expecting a fuck load of smooching and a one-way ticket to Bonetown. Yes.
Finally, we have our first glimpse at the two daddies brooding menacingly on a ranch in the trailer for the film. There’s also a scene where two younger guys are making out while wine pours all over them and it’s… hot. Be still my beating horse.
Pascal has spoken about the film to several outlets, and honestly, it’s kinda giving me life.
In particular, there was an interview with Flaunt where Pascal was asked whether it was easy for him to act attracted to Ethan Hawke. His response has honestly got me twirling my hair like a schoolgirl.
“Very easy. That’s a dumb question! Think about staring into those steel fucking blue eyes. Brown eyes are great! Chocolate chips! But, you know, that steel blue stare of his. Oh god, I don’t mean to make Zoolander references while talking about this film.”
Screaming, crying, throwing up. This movie won’t just be my Joker, it will be my Batman. My Twilight. My Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
While Pascal has recently become the internet’s daddy thanks in part to his role on HBO’s The Last of Us, he’s also no stranger to playing queer characters on screen, becoming a household name after playing the extremely horny, extremely hot, sexually-fluid Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones (a moment of silence).
Jokes aside, the short film is set to be a really big deal in the cinema world, with queer representation, especially in Western films, almost being non-existent at the moment.
Strange Way of Life will hopefully change this, largely in part because of Almodóvar, who Pascal speaks highly of.
“He absolutely opened up an entire world of storytelling, colour, culture, rebellion, and sexuality that was just absolutely intoxicating, dangerous, hilarious, heartbreaking, and encompassing the whole spectrum, but with such a signature style,” he told Insider.
“It could have been anything that he asked me to do, and I would have done it without question.”
gay old men: yes!!!
gay old men who are cowboys: YES!!!!!
gay old men who are cowboys played by pedro pascal and ethan hawke: YYEEESSSSSSSSS pic.twitter.com/2hTtDwQpdI— aquila 🍉 (@belllmonts) April 26, 2023
Yes, Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke are going to be hot cowboys making out with each other on-screen and being hot and sexy and cute. But Strange Way of Life will also see a breakthrough in queer storytelling, championed by the king of LGBTQIA+ filmmaking.
Now that’s something to yeehaw about.
