Tony Gilroy says he never wrote a character like Pedro Pascal in Behemoth!

Pascal described his character as a “passenger in his life,” but Gilroy was quick to clarify that while Alex may be a “passenger,” he is not “passive.” Throughout the course of Monster!we learn about the character’s career and education in non-chronological order. Even today, characters come and go from Alex’s life without us noticing. Gilroy described himself as a “monster” to Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni. “I have always been fascinated by the way Marcello Mastroianni manages to be a passenger in the film but never passive,” he told the audience, particularly highlighting the 1977 movie A Special day. “That’s the thing, putting him on the train and not having him run over. That became possible when (Pascal) arrived. Alex was kind of sitting there waiting, but he wasn’t there until he arrived.” (For what it’s worth, Oscar Isaac was once reported as being involved in the rolebut gave up due to scheduling.)

As Pascal said, reading the script for the first time “felt like a puzzle that I was being asked to piece together”. After reading the script, the two men had what Gilroy described as a “come to Jesus meeting” where he bluntly asked Pascal if he thought he could learn the cello well enough in the very limited time they had to prepare. Pascal admitted he wasn’t sure, which Gilroy called the “right answer.” Pascal said: “I understand the assignment and I’ll give it a go, but I can’t tell you if I’ll get an A.” He later said: “The cello was the main character in my life for several weeks before filming. I took it with me everywhere.” Ultimately, Gilroy approved.

Monster! has its world premiere tonight and hits theaters on December 4.