Manu Ríos on becoming friends with Pedro Pascal during ‘Strange Way of Life’

Manu Ríos will be starring alongside Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke in Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s romantic Western short film ‘Strange Way of Life’.

The short film is set to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which will also mark the young actor’s first time at the prestigious movie festival.

Ríos is best known for his role as Patrick in Netflix’s teen drama series ‘Élite’.

Manu Ríos on spending time in the desert with Pascal

Ríos recently opened up about what it was like to work with ‘The Mandalorian’ actor Pedro Pascal for ‘Strange Way of Life’ during a brief interview at this year’s Met Gala.

“I spent a lot of time with Pedro. He’s the best. It was pretty hot because we shot in the desert in the south of Spain, so it was a lot of time without doing anything and just talking,” Ríos told Variety, although most of his scenes in the movie are with both Pascal and Hawke.

“He’s a really funny guy. It was so much fun.”

What is ‘Strange Way of Life’ about?

‘Strange Way of Life’ is a romantic Western drama short, following Silva’s (Pascal) journey to reunite with his old friend/lover Jake (Hawke) after 25 years. But Jake is resistant to remembering their past together. Ríos’ character name in the short has not been revealed.

Almodóvar spoke about the movie on Dua Lipa’s ‘At Your Service’ podcast, describing it as “a queer Western, in the sense that there are two men and they love each other.”

Continuing, he said, “It’s about masculinity in a deep sense because the Western is a male genre. What I can tell you about the film is that it has a lot of the elements of the Western.

“It has the gunslinger, it has the ranch, it has the sheriff, but what it has that most Westerns don’t have is the kind of dialogue that I don’t think a Western film has ever captured between two men.”

Pedro Almodóvar’s second English-language project

‘Strange Way of Life’ is Almodóvar’s second English-language project, following ‘The Human Voice’ in 2020.

The director was previously set to direct his first full-length English movie, ‘A Manual for Cleaning Women’, starring Cate Blanchett, but ended up canceling after he didn’t feel up to the challenge. The movie has yet to find a replacement director.

“It has been a very painful decision for me,” Almodóvar told Deadline last year. “I have dreamt of working with Cate for such a long time. Dirty Films has been so generous with me this whole time and I was blinded by excitement, but unfortunately, I no longer feel able to fully realize this film.”