Pedro Pascal is currently living his absolute best life; after rising to fame on Game of Thrones and Narcos, he’s now an A-list star of screens big (Fantastic Four) and small (The Mandalorian, The Last of Us). But things weren’t always golden for the affable star, who recently spoke about his long, long road to fame.

In a lighthearted red-carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight—which really kicks in after about a minute and a half in the video below—Pascal talks about his surprise win for The Last of Us at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. “I’ve been sort of dreaming about being an actor my whole life; all of that has been surpassed already. This [award] is crossing a line in a big way,” he says, still seeming to be in disbelief.

He goes on to praise the support he’s felt from the SAG community, noting, “My entry-level lasted about 15 years … we’re taking about being able to see a doctor, getting sick, getting a surgery … [and] paying my rent when I had less than $7 in my account, and a residual from Buffy the Vampire Slayer showed up and saved the day—and literally is the reason I was able to stay [on my career path], and not give up.”

As fans of Pascal well know, his guest-starring role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer came back in 1999 as part of the show’s season four premiere, “The Freshman;” credited as “Pedro Balmaceda,” he plays Eddie, a UC Sunnydale classmate who Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character befriends… at least, until he becomes a vampire. As fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer well know, she saved the world a lot—and, it seems, the career of at least one future Hollywood superstar too.

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