It seems like whenever someone is at a high point in their life, someone is ready to step in and tear them down. And in the past few years, everyone has loved Pedro Pascal.
While on the promotional tour for the launch of Fantastic Four: First Steps, it's been noticed by some that Pedro Pascal comes into contact with his costars, particularly Vanessa Kirby, while making public appearances, taking photographs, and making statements.
Even Pascal's vulnerable statements for an interview with Men's Health were taken out of context:
"I was always one to reach out when I'm facing something that is challenging or making me anxious... I definitely kind of stopped doing that, and instead, I'm doomscroolling, or looking for something to watch; looking for different ways to dsiassociate from the feeling I'm having."
"And then, when it started to feel so critical, I had to go back to what was always the comfort for me in life, which was engagement in my relationships, my friendships, and conversation and shared experience."
While most took this to mean "reaching out" like making a phone call or sending a text, like "reaching out for communication," just enough people took this literally to mean "reaching out a hand" instead.
Using that "verbal confession," those critical of Pascal pointed to examples of him coming into contact with his costars, even if the act was consensual.
Memes suggesting that Pascal touches female costars to "calm his anxiety" began circling, along with degrading comments and side-eyeing memes and GIFs that have shown up in the actor's Instagram comments.
Fellow MCU actor Simu Liu, who portrayed Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and will appear again in Doomsday, finally heard enough of the comments and spoke up on Twitter (X).
"Manufactured hate for someone simply because they're experiencing a moment of extreme visibility (i.e., a press tour they're contractually obligated to do) is really f**king boring."
@SimuLiu/Twitter (X)
Liu faced immediate backlash, and comments criticizing Pascal continued to pour in.
But others applauded the statement and believed people were jealous and trying to tear Pascal down.
Some also theorized that this was because of Pascal's recent defense of the trans community.
Those who theorized that this was about Pascal's defense of trans rights were probably correct. Pascal became vocal about the issue when his sister came out as trans, and he's been particularly vocal about trans rights during the Fantastic Four: First Steps tour.
It makes sense that anti-trans viewers would use whatever they could scrape up to silence his message.
@An_Enemy_Within/X