Watch: Director Pedro Almodóvar Reveals Why Pascal, Hawke were his 'First Choice' for Gay Western

Out Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar opened up about why Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke were his first picks to play a pair of long-separated lovers in his gay western "A Strange Way of Life."

In an interview conducted at Cannes, where the film premiered last week, Almodóvar detailed his process to Deadline and explained how it led to him reaching out personally to the two actors – both of whom said yes to being in the short film.

"I don't visualize the faces, the colors, the style until I have finished the script," the "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" director disclosed. Once the script is done, he went on to say, "then immediately appears the faces, the type of actors – everything – and also visually, I feel out what kind of movie I want to do."

The film's plot involves two middle-aged men – Silva, played by Pascal, and Jake, played by Hawke – who, decades after a youthful romance, are reunited under less-than-ideal circumstances when Jake, a sheriff, has to bring in a younger man wanted for murder – a younger man who might also be his former lover's son.

In the case of "A Strange Way of Life," Almodóvar knew he wanted to put together a pair of performers who would be "very different, even different cultures, different origins and physically different. It was a chemistry that immediately appeared."

The "Pain and Glory" directed added: "Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke were my first choice. Fortunately, I knew them personally so I could call them and send them directly the script; and they just answered me the same day."

"They were very enthusiastic," Almodóvar added. "It gives you a lot of confidence when someone reacts like that."

As previously reported, the filmmaker was approached to make the groundbreaking 2005 film "Brokeback Mountain," which would have been his first English language feature. Almodóvar gave the project a pass, but he has said that "A Strange Way of Life" "could be my answer" to that film, which Ang Lee directed.

Almodóvar's short western feels like an answer to Ang Lee's now-classic movie not only in terms of its premise, but also how it treats the story of the two men. In one scene, a battered Sheriff Jake lies in bed while Silva nurses him. "Years ago you asked me what two men could do living together on a ranch," Silva says, the line a recognizable callback to dialogue between Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback Mountain." "I'll answer you now."

To watch Almodóvar's comments, follow this link.