Pedro Pascal relished villainous Wonder Woman 1984 role

Pedro Pascal left the heavy lifting action up to his Wonder Woman 1984 co-stars.

The actor, well known for playing heroic characters in shows like Narcos and Game of Thrones, portrays charismatic businessman Maxwell Lord in Patty Jenkins' sequel, with Gal Gadot reprising her role as the titular superhero, alongside Chris Pine, Robin Wright and Kristen Wiig.

In the follow-up to 2017's Wonder Woman, Pascal plays the formidable tycoon Lord, who acquires the Dreamstone with disastrous consequences, and teams up with Wiig's villain Cheetah to bring down Wonder Woman.

"With Wonder Woman, (Gal Gadot and Kristen Wiig) are doing the action, baby, and I'm doing the schm-acting!" he joked to Entertainment Weekly.

The 45-year-old compared his role as Lord to his Narcos character Javier Pena, and said he was relieved that he could relax while filming the comic book movie, rather than having to "invent" while on camera.

"I didn't have to take something and figure out how to put more flesh onto it. I had to achieve getting into the skin of what was being presented to me. For me, Colombia (where Narcos is set) was almost the central character, and then I was allowed to make (Javier) depressive and to tonally interpret what the character was. And in this case (on Wonder Woman 1984), there was just so much for me to meet rather than to invent," Pascal shared.

Wonder Woman 1984 is available to stream on Christmas Day and is in cinemas now.