The last of us star Pedro Pascal this week recalled the story of him receiving the phone call confirming he landed the role of Joel Miller on the HBO show, but says it’s a phone call he can’t remember at all. According to the actor, he was on Ambien at the time to calm his nerves and help him fall asleep when the call came in, so he didn’t even remember getting the part until he woke up with congratulations reminding him .

Pascal explained how he got his role on HBO’s The last of us during the most recent episode of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Fallon jokingly asked how Pascal seems to be able to pick out these shows that will be hits given his success in The Mandalorian and the continued success of The last of usbut Pascal said he’s still “begging” for roles and that some of them he’s not always sure he’ll get.

That was the case of The last of us, although he still didn’t know he got it even after he already got it. He said he was given some scripts for the show, and as he was already a fan of Craig Mazin, he loved the scripts and talked to the show’s writer. It was late when he spoke to Mazin, but then he was asked to join the conversation The last of us creator Neil Druckmann as well.

“And they said, ‘Are you staying up a little later?’ – at this point it was getting a little late in London – “to talk to Neil Druckmann, the creator of the video game, and he’d like to talk to you too,” said Pascal. “Stay up for that Zoom. We all fall in love again. And then – and then, at that point, it’s really late. I have to get up in the morning. I take an Ambien to fall asleep case – they got my adrenaline going and my – my hopes are set. But I get a call and I’m told I got the job after taking the Ambien. And so I was excited, I guess, but I didn’t I don’t remember.”

Pascal kept saying that he woke up the next day, still hoping to get the part and expecting to be on the phone all day waiting for a call.

-” woke up in the morning, and the first thing that came to mind was like, “Oh, man. I really want that job. And I’m in London. They’re in LA. I’m gonna wait by the bell all day “This hasn’t happened in a while, you know. I’ll yearn and I’ll think about it all day.” Yeah, and it’s like, ‘Oh, congratulations. So happy for you,’ when I looked at my phone. And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah! I got the job!'”

The last of us still has a few episodes left in this first season, and it’s also been renewed for season 2, so expect to see a lot more from Pascal in the future.