Danny Ramirez of ‘Top Gun Maverick’ Says Pedro Pascal Is the Easiest Actor to Have Chemistry With After Finishing ‘De Noche’

Todd Haynes is directing a love story about a detective and a teacher who fall in love and flee Los Angeles for Mexico, and the two men leading it are Pedro Pascal and Danny Ramirez. The film is called “De Noche,” filming wrapped in April 2026, and the road to getting it made involved Joaquin Phoenix walking away, a producer calling the whole experience a nightmare on social media, and Pascal eventually stepping in to save the project entirely.

How Joaquin Phoenix Almost Made This Movie and Then Didn’t

“De Noche” started as a Joaquin Phoenix project. He had been developing the script alongside screenwriter Jon Raymond and director Todd Haynes, and was set to appear in the film. The collaboration fell apart when Phoenix pushed Haynes to take the film’s explicit content further, which would have likely resulted in an NC-17 rating. Phoenix ultimately quit the project, and producer Christine Vachon was candid about how badly it had gone, writing in a since-deleted social media post that the experience had been “a nightmare.”

Vachon also addressed what she anticipated would be a predictable response from critics of the casting choice. She wrote: “If you are tempted to finger wag or admonish us that ‘that’s what you get for casting a straight actor’ — don’t. This was his project that he brought to us.” Danny Ramirez had already joined the project by July 2024, which made Phoenix’s exit a blow to everyone already invested in the film’s future.

Pedro Pascal Came In and the Project Found Its Footing

August 2025 brought the news that “De Noche” was back in development, this time with Pascal attached to the lead role Phoenix had left behind. By February 2026, production was in full swing, with principal photography beginning in March and taking place primarily in Mexico City. Filming officially wrapped in April 2026.

Pascal plays a detective and Ramirez plays a teacher. Their characters fall in love and are ultimately forced to leave Los Angeles and make their way to Mexico, which gives the story its geographic and emotional core. Haynes, who directed “Carol” and “Far From Heaven” and has spent decades telling stories about desire and displacement, is exactly the kind of filmmaker this material was built for.

Danny Ramirez Is Practically Glowing About His Co-Star

At the Academy Museum Gala on October 18, Ramirez spoke to Variety about what it was like to work opposite Pascal and did not hold back. He described Pascal as “the easiest person ever to have chemistry with” and reflected on the experience of being directed by Haynes while sharing scenes with someone of Pascal’s caliber.

Ramirez said: “Being directed by Todd, and being opposite Pedro in that film, it was one of those moments where I’m like, it is one of the luckiest things as an actor to be opposite someone that has so much talent and being led by someone with such a vision. A fantastic script, a phenomenal director and scene partner make the job so much easier. The collaboration between those two — I wish every film was like that.”

There is no confirmed release date for “De Noche” yet, but the film has already survived enough to earn people’s attention.