Sarah Paulson Supported Pedro Pascal in Their Early Acting Days 'So He'd Have Money to Feed Himself'

Paulson and Pascal had become friends in New York City while they pursued acting, and Paulson said the pair "would go to see movies all the time in those years"

Sarah Paulson had Pedro Pascal's back when he was a struggling actor.

The American Horror Story actress, 48, recalled in a recent Esquire cover story on Pascal that in the early days of his acting career in New York City, she would give him some money to survive.

"He's talked about this publicly, but 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," Paulson told the outlet.

Pascal — who had only picked up a few small roles by that time on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Touched by an Angel and Undressed in Los Angeles — said he had moved back to New York City in the 2000s after struggling to find work.

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"I died so many deaths," 48-year-old Pascal said. "My vision of it was that if I didn't have some major exposure by the time I was twenty-nine years old, it was over, so I was constantly readjusting what it meant to commit my life to [acting], and giving up the idea of it looking like I thought it would when I was a kid. There were so many good reasons to let that delusion go."

However, he said he had found a "family" among some LaGuardia High School graduates, including Paulson, in the city. Paulson said the pair even went to the movies together.

Related:Pedro Pascal's Best Movies and Shows Before The Last of Us

"We would go to see movies all the time in those years and we would get so lost in them. You can fill in the blanks about the why of that however you like, but I think there were things we wanted to escape mentally, emotionally, spiritually," she said.

Since then, a lot has changed for Pascal, with breakout roles in Game of Thrones as Oberyn Martell and in Narcos as Javier Peña. The actor is currently starring in two major TV shows, Disney's The Mandalorian and HBO's The Last of Us.

"It's just so psychotic," Paulson said. "[Now] everybody wants a piece of him."

RELATED Video: Why We Love Pedro Pascal, From Game of Thrones to The Last of Us

She told Esquire she believed that Pascal's success is partially due to his connection to viewers and that he has the chops to go even further in his career.

"You just want him to succeed," she says. "And that to me, I feel like, is the sign of a major movie star. I'm ready for him to take the reins from the guys from romantic comedies past, like Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson and all these guys. He can be all that. Let's remake Die Hard with Pedro. Remake all the Lethal Weapon movies with Pedro."

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