Jacket, shirt, tie and trousers TOGA / Shoes Sandro / Socks Pairs / Rings Missoma

“It was 18 years ago, literally half of my life ago. I cannot put into words the lack of a clue I had on the Skins set,” he reveals, half laughing. “It was my first ever acting job, first time on a set, first time in front of cameras. Series one, they had to tell me to look out for marks on the floor, which camera to look into, all the stuff that I look back on now and would consider the basics. But I was a true newbie, we all were.”

Since then, his career has moved comfortably between cult favourites and larger-scale productions, from musketeer d’Artagnan in The Musketeers to turns in Our Girl, Snatch, and now Rivals, the glossy Jilly Cooper adaptation that has quickly become one of Disney+’s most talked-about releases. There’s a fondness Pasqualino talks about the past with, and its only competition is the eagerness with which he talks about the present, and the understated confidence with which he talks about the future.

Jacket Michael Kors / Top Studio Nicholson / Belt Stylist’s own / Trousers Octobre Editions

In Rivals, Pasqualino steps into the role of Bas Baddingham with a kind of effortless magnetism that makes him immediately feel at home in a Jilly Cooper universe. Bas is the sort of man who knows exactly how to command a room, but Pasqualino plays him with enough restraint to let the cracks show through, stopping the character from slipping into caricature. “Rivals is hilarious, and heartfelt, and raunchy and sexy, and all of the things, and so for me, the only thing I initially worried about was what to do with my audition tonally. But when we got onto set, it all just seemed to work,” he explains.

Across the first series, Bas operates as both insider and observer within the chaos of Rutshire’s social politics, navigating ambition and desire with a cool self-possession that occasionally allows for something more vulnerable underneath. Pasqualino hints that series two pushes those tensions even further. “For Bas, a lot of it is in the writing, and the writing is so amazing. A big chunk of the work is already done when you receive the script,” he says, giving praise to the writing team led by Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Laura Wade. “There’s a different energy with a lot of the characters this year, and I think Bas in particular has upped his game, with his look and his choices, he’s coming into his own skin, and that was incredibly fun to play.” Without giving too much away about the second series, which is being released in batches on Disney+, Pasqualino suggests this series will explore both Bas’ ego and charm.

Suit Gant / T-shirt Rise&Fall / Shoes GH Bass / Socks Pairs / Rings Missoma

With Rivals continuing to build momentum, Pasqualino is in a particularly busy chapter of his career. “There’s a lot going on, and so naturally, there’s a lot to be grateful for,” he explains. “People always say things about buses and everything suddenly coming at once, but you know, I’ve got a great team, and I just learn my lines and I turn up.” Alongside returning for the show’s second series, he has several other projects either newly released or lined up for the future, including The Day, an upcoming eight-part Paramount show where he stars alongside Minnie Driver and Louise Harland, and which is the reason for his Dublin Airport interview location. “It’s a bit of an intense show directed by The Tohill Brothers, incredibly talented Irish directors, and the show follows a character called Luke, who makes some interesting decisions at the end of his tether,” he says, while finding humour in playing a character also called Luke. 

He also joined the cast of Apple TV’s Criminal Record, starring alongside The Musketeers co-star Peter Capaldi. “It was great fun making that, working again with Peter, and working with Cush (Jumbo) for the first time.” He also mentions he’s begun filming War, a show for HBO Max and Sky, another project that seems to mark a shift into darker, more cinematic territory.

Jacket Studio Nicholson / Shirt Farah / T-shirt Rise&Fall / Belt Stylist’s own / Trousers Octobre Editions

There’s a fondness with which Pasqualino talks about the past, matched only by the eagerness with which he talks about the present, and the understated confidence with which he talks about the future. It’s a natural progression for an actor who has spent years quietly moving between genres without ever becoming fixed to one type of role. We speak about his selection process. “I think how much you can relate to a character is a big thing for me. I try to read the script from top to bottom, just to see the wider context and how much you relate to what they say, how they feel, their choices. Something twinges in me, and there’s a bit of an invisible checklist going on in my head when I’m reading the content. What am I feeling, what’s the emotional connection I have to the character?” he says.

Speaking about the difference between the roles he auditions for and the ones he’s approached to play directly, Pasqualino reveals that he still wrestles with a lingering sense of self-doubt. “It’s the whole inferiority complex, isn’t it? Sometimes they ask for me, and I’m a bit like… are you sure? Why are you offering it to me?” he continues, laughing slightly, admitting that part of him still feels like he hasn’t quite earned the luxury of being offered roles outright.

Suit Gant / T-shirt Rise&Fall / Shoes GH Bass / Socks Pairs / Rings Missoma

Speaking about what could potentially be next for him, he seems less interested in chasing visibility than in finding projects that genuinely excite him, a mindset that, increasingly, appears to be paying off.

As our conversation turns to what he still wants from his career, Pasqualino speaks less about prestige and more about range. Despite often being cast as the charming lead or emotionally conflicted romantic, he seems drawn toward disruptive characters with darker edges, pushing him to act further away from himself. “I’d love to get the chance to play a proper villain, to really push me, to play someone far removed from myself. And that’s obviously dependent on my self assessment that I’m a good guy,” he laughs, “but there’s something so fun about playing the bad guy! I think to play a Bond villain, for example, and if anybody from Amazon is listening, I would take Bond also! But there’s something so iconic about the villains, I’d love to get my teeth into a role like that.”

Another dream role? A biopic. “I think a biopic would be very cool, taking the time to really understand a person’s craft, and use my craft to showcase theirs, or what they went through, and why they made particular choices.” Anyone in mind? “Marlon Brando would be cool,” he answers pretty quickly. “I don’t know if I’ve got the chops for that, but he’s such an interesting and complex bloke, who made a few contentious choices, and I think that would be so fun to do.”

Jacket, shirt, tie and trousers TOGA / Shoes Sandro / Socks Pairs / Rings Missoma

For all the ambition that still clearly drives him, there’s something refreshingly unguarded about the way Pasqualino speaks about acting. Even after nearly two decades in the industry, the excitement hasn’t calcified into cynicism, and the curiosity that shapes Pasqualino’s choices still feels entirely intact. “I love doing this, and I don’t know what else I’d be doing if I wasn’t doing this,” he says warmly over Zoom, before laughing slightly: “And also, I think I’m doing a good job at it? And that’s a pretty big driving factor too. There’s still so many characters I want to play, so much more I want to do.”

As our conversation begins to wind down, Pasqualino reflects on the thing that continues to pull him back. It’s nothing overly shiny, but rather the thrill of disappearing into someone else’s world for a while. It feels fitting somehow: an actor still in transit, still chasing the feeling that made him fall in love with acting in the first place.

Rivals Season 2 is now airing on Disney+

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