Lux Pascal is no stranger to being in the spotlight. The actress, better known for La Jauría (2019), La California (2022) and appearing alongside her brother Pedro Pascal in Narcos (2015), would love for that spotlight to focus on her work. Her most recent project – the podcast show Love in Gravity – is now available on all major audio platforms, and it’s precisely the kind of project Pascal would love for everyone to be able to listen to.
The six-part original series podcast, which is ultimately about “identity,” and about “discovering and nourishing your vulnerabilities and kind of leading with them and not trying to hide them,” sparked a conversation within Pascal about such vulnerabilities because of its focus on LGBTQ+ stories within the Latine community. But also, about what it meant for someone with her history: coming out as a transgender woman in 2021, her very public activism for the trans community and the visibility a famous surname has given her, to be involved in a project like Love in Gravity.
Pascal is very intentional about it – and about the way she describes the show’s deconstruction of hypermasculinity on the podcast, which focuses on Jules and Teo, who are both on the cusp of stardom and just trying to figure out where they belong. “It was beautiful to kind of witness because there was certainly a lot of anger that I had towards the hypermasculine.” She shared. “I have so much anger for men who have hurt me in the past with their masculine traits. And I was finally being able to listen to the hurt part of that man, of that boy.”
But she was also very clear about not giving too much power to this idea of masculinity and what it represents, especially within a project that is supposed to deconstruct toxic thinking carried on within our communities. “It’s like a costume you wear every now and then,” she told us, adding that, if we pay too much attention to it, “we’re giving it power that it doesn’t have.”
“I know men that are hypermasculine and that aren’t really working hard to be. They’re just the way they are. And I think that’s okay, as long as we can consider that these hypermasculine men could be gay men, or they could be trans men,” Pascal said, honest about how podcasts like Love in Gravity open doors to conversations that are much-needed.
These conversations are part of the reason Pascal was drawn to Love in Gravity – a podcast by ViiV Healthcare, the only pharmaceutical company solely focused on HIV & AIDS, and produced by the award-winning entertainment studio Harley & Co. “I was drawn to the project because I thought it was super funny and kind of refreshing.” Season 1 of the podcast also tackled some of the same topics, albeit in a shorter format as the six individual stories starred notable actors like Harvey Guillén, Jessica Marie Garcia, and Wilson Cruz.
But there was also her character, Sofia, the kind of person who doesn’t rock the boat – even as she becomes Teo’s main support system as he fights against hypermasculinity and contemplates whether to come out and what that would mean for his life but also his family and fans. That was something Pascal was interested in embodying.
“I wanted to give nuance so that people could understand why our culture is layered.” And within those layers is the reality that coming out isn’t a singular event or the only thing LGBTQ+ stories are about. It changes you. And most importantly, you don’t owe it to others. It’s the individual’s decision. “There’s so much pressure about that as well,” she told us. “We don’t talk enough about the LGBTQ+ community putting pressure on people to come out and all the other problematic things that come with that.”
“Like, no, you have to live authentically, and everybody has to know there’s such thing as “I want to be anonymous. I want to be private about certain stuff. I don’t want to have to answer all these questions about my identity.” Sometimes I just want to chill and have a beignet.”
We’d be happy to join Lux Pascal.
Love in Gravity seasons 1 & 2 are now available on all listening platforms.
