I just found out that ugameplaystatics::getplayercharacter(GetWorld(), 0) is a null pointer. I’m not sure why though. I can get a non null pointer if I do:
FString PawnName;
for (TActorIterator<APawn> ActorItr(GetWorld()); ActorItr; ++ActorItr)
{
APawn *pawn = *ActorItr;
PawnName = ActorItr->GetName();
}