A lip reader has revealed what Pedro Pascal told Joaquin Phoenix after he pulled down the actor’s waving hand during the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
NJ Hickling explained the incident to DailyMail.com following the video that captured the moment at the Cannes premiere of their movie Eddington on Friday.
In the video, which is now circulating online, Pascal stops Phoenix from waving to onlookers before the duo briefly speak.
Netizens suspected The Last Of Us actor was concerned Phoenix’s wave could have inadvertently resembled the Nazi salute.
But according to Hickling, Pascal told Phoenix, both 50, he was ‘affecting the cred’ before advising him to ‘act cool.’
As they pose together for photos, Pedro grabs Joaquin’s arm and pulls it down with a playful warning.
‘Argh, don’t do that. You’re affecting the cred. Try and act cool, like you’re about to score, my man.’
Joaquin, ever the introspective soul, pauses for just a beat. His mouth forms the words: ‘Oh, enough.’
At first glance, it might seem like a response to Pedro, but in reality, Joaquin is also addressing himself. A glimmer of self-awareness comes over him. Then, softly, almost as if speaking to no one in particular, he murmurs, ‘Oh my goodness.’
The humor remains, yet there is also something else present: a fleeting vulnerability in his facade, providing a glimpse of Joaquin’s quiet resistance against the demands of celebrity.
Hickling added that Phoenix digested the information before replying, ‘Alright man.’
Fans sounded off with their theories about the interaction on social media, with various tweeting about it and others sharing their musings in the comments section of the video posted to Instagram.
One wrote on X, ‘Joaquin was really enjoying that wave until he got told he looked like a Nazi.’
‘The way Pedro Pascal pulled down Joaquin Phoenix’s arm before an accidental salute has me fried,’ another wrote.
Another Instagram user remarked in the comments section of the video: ‘A decade ago, no one would have mistaken a simple wave for a Nazi salute. But in today’s heightened political climate, such misinterpretations have become not only plausible but, unfortunately, unsurprising,’ one mused.
‘Guys, he’s trying to save him from being misinterpreted. Or being purposefully misinterpreted. It’s hilarious how people literally can’t do anything anymore,’ one posted on Instagram.
‘Pedro just saved Joaquin’s entire career,’ one joked.
‘The problem is not that he was waving, but what if the photographers snap a photo at just the wrong time, and then suddenly everyone on the internet thinks he did something bad,’ another posted.
‘Omg Pedro Pascal is such a character and an awesome actor. They were waving and he turns and pulls the guy’s arm down beside him. Pedro was probably like we can’t wave like that anymore people gonna say we are nazis,’ one posted.
‘How could that be misinterpreted? Clearly just waving,’ one fan wrote on Instagram,. 873 others were in agreement with this particular comment as they gave it a ‘like.’
Another netizen was angered over the hypothetical scenario that the Jewish actor’s wave could have been accidentally interpreted as the salute.
This particular X user said Pascal had ‘crossed the line’.
‘This progressive militant persona that Pedro Pascal has adopted has simply crossed the line. For him to even suggest that Joaquin Phoenix, a descendent of Jews, would be making a gesture that could be mistaken for a Nazi salute is stupidly paranoid,’ one said.
Phoenix and Pascal are in France debuting their film Eddington at the Cannes Film Festival.
The western horror movie, which releases July 18, stars Emma Stone, Pascal, Austin Butler, Phoenix, Michael Ward and Luke Grimes.
The film, by Midsommar and Hereditary director Ari Aster, is set during the COVID-19 pandemic, seemingly at the onset of the Black Lives Matter riots.
Eddington stars Joaquin as a small-town sheriff in New Mexico and Pedro as the local mayor, locked in a battle of wills that drags in the people around them.
