HBO's The Pacific is basically a brutal, mud-soaked fever dream that refuses to let go of your psyche long after the credits roll. If you’ve seen it, you know. It isn’t just a war story; it’s a visceral descent into the absolute limits of human endurance. And right at the center of that chaos is a performance so unsettling and magnetic that it basically redefined what we expected from a television actor. Rami Malek in The Pacific didn't just play a role. He vanished.
Honestly, before he was winning Oscars for Bohemian Rhapsody or hacking the world in Mr. Robot, Malek was PFC Merriell "Snafu" Shelton. He wasn't the lead, technically. But you couldn't look away from him.
The Man Behind the Nickname
Snafu is a legend in Marine Corps history, largely thanks to Eugene Sledge’s seminal memoir, With the Old Breed. The name itself? It’s classic military dark humor. "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up." It fits. In the series, Malek plays Snafu as a Louisiana-born veteran who has already seen too much by the time he meets Sledge (played by Joseph Mazzello).
He’s a 60mm mortarman. He’s a survivor. And he is, by all accounts, weird.
Malek brings this jittery, wide-eyed intensity to the character that feels less like acting and more like a document of trauma. You’ve got this guy who speaks in a thick, gravelly Cajun-adjacent drawl, tossing pebbles into the hollowed-out skull of a dead Japanese soldier like he’s playing a game of marbles. It’s grotesque. It’s also probably the most honest depiction of how war turns teenagers into something unrecognizable.
Why Snafu Still Haunts Us
There is this specific scene on Peleliu. Sledge is about to use a knife to pry gold teeth out of a dead enemy soldier’s mouth. It’s the moment Sledge is about to lose his soul. Snafu stops him. Not because of some moral high ground—Snafu had been doing that very thing earlier—but because he wanted to keep Sledge "human" for just a little bit longer.
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"You don't want to do that," Snafu says. It’s a quiet, devastating moment of brotherhood.
Malek’s eyes do all the heavy lifting here. They are massive, sunken, and perpetually alert. He looks like a man who has forgotten how to sleep. That’s the magic of Rami Malek in The Pacific; he captured the sensory overload of the Pacific Theater—the rot, the rain, the sheer sensory assault—through his physical mannerisms.
The Audition That Changed Everything
Getting the part wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Malek has told the story about walking into the room and seeing Steven Spielberg himself holding a camcorder to tape the audition. Imagine that pressure. But Malek was actually the first person cast for the series. Tom Hanks and Spielberg saw something in him—that "haunting" quality that would eventually make him a household name.
The production was intense. The cast went through a grueling ten-day boot camp in the Australian rainforest. We're talking 1942 gear, sleeping in holes, eating coffee grounds to stay awake, and literal "war games" where they didn't know when an "attack" was coming.
- Location: Daintree Rainforest, Australia.
- Conditions: No trailers. No AC. Just dirt and cigarettes.
- Result: Authenticity that you just can't fake in a studio.
Malek has often called this his breakthrough. It’s easy to see why. Before this, he was mostly known for bit parts or playing the Pharaoh in Night at the Museum. The Pacific proved he could handle the darkest corners of the human condition.
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Fact vs. Fiction: The Real Merriell Shelton
It’s worth noting that the real Merriell Shelton was a bit different from the TV version. Friends and family described him as having a Cajun accent so thick he was basically unintelligible if he’d had a few drinks.
He was a gambler. A loner.
After the war, the real Snafu went back to Louisiana. He worked as an air conditioner repairman. He got married, had kids, and lived a relatively quiet life until his death in 1993. Interestingly, he and Eugene Sledge didn't speak for over 35 years after the war ended. It wasn't until Sledge's book came out that they finally reconnected.
When Snafu died, Sledge was one of the pallbearers. That’s a level of bond most of us will never truly understand.
How The Pacific Paved the Way for Mr. Robot
If you look closely at Snafu, you can see the blueprints for Elliot Alderson. The social detachment. The thousand-yard stare. The way he observes the world from a slight angle.
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Rami Malek in The Pacific was essentially a masterclass in playing a character who is physically present but mentally elsewhere. He treats the battlefield as a workspace, a grim reality he has to navigate with cold efficiency. It’s that same "outsider" energy that made Mr. Robot such a cultural phenomenon.
Where to Watch and What to Look For
If you’re revisiting the series on Netflix or Max, pay attention to the silence. Some of Malek’s best work happens when he isn't saying a word. Watch the way he handles his mortar. Watch the way he looks at Sledge during the transition from Pavuvu to Okinawa.
It’s a performance that doesn’t beg for your attention; it demands it by being utterly, unapologetically strange.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Actors
- Read "With the Old Breed": If you want the full context of Malek’s performance, Sledge’s memoir is non-negotiable. It provides the "internal monologue" that Malek channeled so well.
- Watch for the Physicality: Notice how Snafu moves compared to the "greener" Marines. He stays low. He wastes no energy. It’s a great study in character-driven movement.
- Explore the Career Arc: Trace Malek's work from here to The Master (2012). You can see him refining this "unsettling supporting character" archetype before he moved into leading roles.
There’s a reason people are still talking about this performance 15 years later. It wasn't just a job for Malek. It was a transformation.
To truly appreciate the depth of this role, your next step should be to watch Episode 7, "Peleliu Hills." It’s widely considered the peak of Malek's performance and captures the exact moment the character—and the actor—cemented their place in TV history.