Manu Ríos says it got “pretty hot” working with Pedro Pascal on that gay western & now we’re overheating

Anticipation for Pedro Pascal’s upcoming queer western drama A Strange Way of Life has reached the point were the gays are about to spontaneously combust.

Directed by Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, the Brokeback Mountain-esque short features Pascal, 48, and Ethan Hawke, 52, playing an outlaw and a sheriff who reunite after 25 years apart. Giddy up!

With the daddy needs of viewers fully quenched by the two main stars, the film also features an assortment of younger hunks to round out the cowboy fantasy, including Elite twink Manu Ríos.

When the trailer dropped last month, audiences got a glimpse of Ríos’ gorgeous face amid the melodramatic gunslinging action but it was unclear if he shared much screen time with the internet’s “cool slutty daddy.”

But now we have confirmation that we’ll get to see Ríos and Pascal smolder together on the big screen.

In a new interview, the 24-year-old Spanish actor said most of his scenes are with The Last of Us star and disclosed they even bonded off-screen as well.

“I spent a lot of time with Pedro,” Ríos told Variety. “He’s the best.”

Fans will be pleased to know that their time together was sweltering, but not in the way you would think.

“It was pretty hot because we shot in the desert in the south of Spain,” Ríos added, “so it was a lot of time without doing anything and just talking.” Ok, it may have been innocent, but we’re still having Sean Cody flashbacks!

Jokes aside, Ríos had nothing but praise for his costar and affirmed Pascal’s long-standing reputation of being a charmer.  “He’s a really funny guy. It was so much fun.”

Since they hit it off so well, Ríos said he’d be eager to collaborate with Pascal again on The Mandalorian or some other project.

“I would do it, of course, whenever he wants,” Ríos shared. Whenever and wherever he wants!

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Ríos is expected to reunite with the film’s cast when A Strange Way of Life premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17th.

Elsewhere, Ríos won’t appear in the upcoming seventh and final season of Elite, but he’s got another buzzy TV series on his plate.

He’ll re-team with his Elite co-star Aron Piper in the new Netflix limited series Muted. The duo, who previously played lovers on the blockbuster teen telenovela, will engage in less romantic but equally tense situations when the Spanish-language thriller premieres May 19th.

And he recently signed with the uber powerful WME talent agency, which pretty much sets him up to make an even bigger splash in Hollywood. If Mike White’s listening, send him to The White Lotus!

It’s still unclear when and where general audiences will be able to watch A Strange Way of Life, so for now we’ll just have to be satisfied with gawking at Pascal, Hawke, and Ríos in the film’s trailer: