Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal is one of the most well-known actors of today. He is most commonly known as Pedro Pascal. Pascal has been in many well-known productions such as Game of Thrones, Narcos, Wonder Woman 1984, and, the most recent, The Last of Us. How did he rise to the top despite all of the many laborious obstacles he had to overcome? Malcolm Gladwell’s popular novel, Outliers, emphasizes that the disadvantages one has to deal with are actually the reason for one’s success, and not truly disadvantages at all. Pedro Pascal’s impediments of being a political refugee from Chile, being a Latino in a white-dominated field, and experiencing his family’s scandals enabled him to become one of the most successful actors. José Pedro Balmaceda

At first, he was limited to small roles that were almost always framed in the same register that pigeonholes so many Hispanic actors: gang members and drug traffickers. This which seems like a restraint not only allowed him to continue practicing and perfecting his skills but also allowed him to get roles that many others would not be able to. Gladwell expresses, “ … the world changed and he was ready. He didn’t triumph over adversity. Instead, what started as adversity ended up being an opportunity” (Gladwell 128). Being a first-generation Latino immigrant inevitably was a factor in his enormous

Pascal originally went by Pedro Balmaceda, his father’s last name. Tragically in 1999, his father ran into legal trouble, so his family had to return to Chile. His father had been accused of switching frozen embryos of women without their consent. While there his mother died by suicide. People had always struggled to pronounce ‘ Pedro Balmaceda’, as a result he decided to go by ‘Pedro Pascal’ to not only make his name easier to pronounce but to also honor his mother. According to Gladwell “The sense of possibility so necessary for success comes not just from inside us or from our parents. It comes from our time: from the particular opportunities that our particular place in history presents us with” (137). Following his family moving back to Chile as a result of his father’s legal trouble, and his mother’s sudden passing, he took it upon himself to continue to succeed. In an interview with NBC News, he said, "Be yourself and don’t give up, we’re past the time now where you need to sort of change your name or kind of appropriate yourself to a culture that is not your own.” Pascal made the most out of the extreme loss he had just gone through and became a public advocate for mental health and