Damian Alcazar, from left to right, who plays the role of a Cali druglord named Gilberto Orejuela in the Netflix series "Narcos", Paulina Gaitan, who plays the character of Pablo Escobar's wife Tata, Wagner Moura, who plays the role of Pablo Escobar, and, Pedro Pascal, who plays the role of a DEA agent named Javier Peña, pose for photos during a media call to promote their second season, in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. "Narcos" the Netflix series about the history of the cocaine route presents the downfall of Pablo Escobar in its second season premiering worldwide on Sept.2. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
NEW YORK (AP) – Season two of "Narcos," a drama about the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, is now on Netflix and the streaming company announced this week that the show has been renewed for a third and fourth season.
Two of its stars, Boyd Holbrook and Pedro Pascal, play DEA agents on the hunt to take down Escobar. Their characters are based on real people who dedicated their lives to the cause.
"It becomes a near compulsion to get this guy," said Pascal in a joint interview with Holbrook. "Outside of the fact that he was extremely dangerous, it's one of the things that connects Boyd and I to our characters — their very narrow view of getting this guy. It becomes kind of an obsession."
Holbrook adds that the interesting thing about season two is the "Shakespearian quality" of what happens. "These guys go down there to Colombia with very the best of intentions but you can't be goody-two shoes about catching the most violent and radical criminal in the history of time."
"You've got to break some rules," added Pascal.
The two actors told The Associated Press about their previous knowledge of Escobar and binging on TV shows.
Associated Press: Some people describe watching the series as almost like viewing a documentary. Do you agree?
Pascal: It is very much a docu-drama.
Holbrook: It does have that feeling that the camera is not there.
Pascal: We shoot 90 percent location, 10 percent studio and all of it is in Colombia. Every corner of Bogota, and other cities outside of Bogota, Medellin, Santa Marta. So we're using all of the real locations and then alongside that we're using all this archival footage and photographs and real news reels from the events.
AP: Do you think the events in this series helped lead to the rise of the Mexican drug cartel?
Holbrook: Absolutely, man. Pablo was going straight from Colombia to Miami and, with the demise of Pablo, the other cartels took over and there is the evolution of El Chapo.
AP: How familiar were you with Pablo Escobar before you signed on?
Pascal: I knew a little. I went to Colombia with my family in '89. My father is a doctor and there was a medical associate of his in Bogota and we made a stop in Colombia a part of a Latin American vacation. I remember being with the kids of my father's associate and us being driven around with a body guard and bulletproof windows. It was interesting because for the kids it was normal.
AP: It must be fun being on a show like this where it's all launched at once on Netflix and you hear of people watching one episode after the other.
Pascal: I've done it myself, particularly on Netflix. I think I was up until 4 in the morning watching "Making a Murderer" during the holidays. It was terrible. I was supposed to be enjoying Christmas with my family but I was hungover from watching something terrifying until 4 in the morning.
Holbrook: Oh, but it's great that we work for about nine months on something and then people watch it in 10 hours (laughter.)
Pascal: "When's the next season?" (Laughter.)
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