Jason Momoa has the biceps, vocal timbre and alpha-male attitude to seemingly carve out a successful career as an action movie hero. But before his commercial audition with the public in “Conan the Barbarian,” his leading man debut, there comes something even more potentially nervousness-inducing — the requisite pre-release juggernaut of press commitments. Momoa recently made his debut on “The Tonight Show,” chatting cars with host Jay Leno (he favors an old Cadillac) and suffering the characteristic new-guest embarrassment of having an old clip from early in his career (in this case, from “Baywatch”) pulled out and showcased. Amidst a packed itinerary that necessitated some rescheduling, he recently graced ShockYa with some one-on-one time, to chat about “Conan,” his family, how he now feels without dreadlocks, and the project he hopes to (someday) make his directorial debut. The conversation is excerpted below:
ShockYa: Have you ever had anything this intense, professionally — the press gauntlet you’ve had to run?
Jason Momoa: No. I mean, “Game of Thrones” obviously has so many characters in it that the attention [is more spread out], and I did this little [thing] in London, but I’ve never been on anything quite this big. I’m also working now. It’s insane. I’ve stolen a little time to see my kids, which are the world to me, but it’s been almost a month of “Where am I?” and “What did I say?”
ShockYa: You actually live not too far from me. Is that the appeal of [a canyon area], that it doesn’t feel like Los Angeles, or a quote-unquote big city?
JM: I know it sounds cliched, but it’s great to be so close with nature. That’s how I grew up, really. And… it’s fantastic, we’ve got five acres up here and we’re surrounded by the mountains, and we have an orchard. My kids can play in the dirt and wander around. And I want to be able to give them that, so they can have that while they’re still near the city. It’s great, because 10 minutes down the Pacific Coast Highway we’re in Santa Monica. Everything is great, and we’re very lucky to have our own space.
ShockYa: You’ve worked steadily in a lot of genre pieces: “Game of Thrones,” “Stargate: Atlantis,” and now “Conan.” When you’re not just an actor but you’re involved in these very physical roles where a premium value is placed on your appearance, you’re almost like an athlete in that your body is a tool that you have to take care of.
JM: Yeah, totally.
ShockYa: Is that something that’s difficult, or is it easy, and a byproduct of your enjoyment of the outdoors when you were younger and what not?
JM: I think I’m genetically fairly athletic, and I grew up around sports, so it’s very easy on that side. And so I enjoy the physicality. I love playing the action, but I also have loved playing those characters, because if you look at all three of them they’re totally different. I don’t want to be the same guy in every action movie, over and over. Khal Drogo (my “Game of Thrones” character) is just phenomenal, and speaks a whole different dialect (Dothraki, created for the show by an expert linguist), and is completely the opposite of Conan. I mean, eventually I guess I’m going to run out of them, but I love the characters and all the dramatic aspects of [what I do]. I also write and want to direct, and there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t even attempted to do yet. So there’s a lot of hope and intent there to do that in the future.
ShockYa: You had the dreadlocks for seven years for “Stargate: Atlantis,” but now your “Conan” locks fall a bit more gently.
JM: I loved them, but it was just time to cut them. My wife (Lisa Bonet) had them for 14 years. They’re beautiful. You just wash them, and they kind of curl. It’s just knotted hair, you just don’t comb it. And then of course they get bigger and bigger. But mine got really heavy, actually. And so during action scenes on “Stargate” I’d get whiplash from swinging them around. They were actually becoming painful. And then after I had my daughter I thought about it and then figured it was time for a change.
ShockYa: So she wasn’t reaching up and trying to swing from them or anything?
JM: (laughs) No, no. I cut them when she was probably 12 months old.
ShockYa: What was your first reaction to news of a Conan” reboot, and what do you think about the enduring popularity of the character?
JM: I was super-stoked because I’m a Conan fan, both of the comic books and Robert E. Howard stories. And all of those, along with almost eight decades of stuff, were all my source material for “Conan.” But you also realize that even though there’s a lot of material you have plenty of kids who maybe don’t know much about the character. So it’s exciting to be part of something that allows for them to discover it. And they’re then able to go out and see and read more. I think the fans will be happy. And I always compare the character to being James Bond, like with Sean Connery and Daniel Craig. They’re totally different but equally interesting, and you don’t want to leave either one out. You enjoy each of them.
ShockYa: Instead of the childhood of enslavement, the quest of your Conan is much more one of vengeance. This is perhaps a strange question, but did you work with Leo Howard, [the actor who plays Conan as a boy] to try to create some sort of throughline or connective tissue with your performance?
JM: Yes. His material was filmed before me, and I actually spent a lot of time with Leo working at it, non-stop. I’d watch his performance, and material from his dailies because he’s [Conan] too, you know? So his reactions and actions were very important to me, and some of the things that he was seeing and going through early in the movie I wanted to be in my memory too. So we spent a lot of time together, and talked about movement and stuff like that too. I wanted him to move like a lion. And he’s obviously a little master swordsman and a black belt in karate, so I actually had to learn to fight a bit like him because he was always already amazing. He was a real catch. My favorite fight in the whole movie is the one with him in the beginning.
ShockYa: You also have a short film you produced, right? That you’d eventually like to turn into a feature?
JM: Yeah, I do. It’s called “Road to Poloma,” and we did a four-day shoot for it. We went around America and shot some images that me and my partner wanted to show and give a taste of what this potential movie would look like, accompanying our script. So basically we’re using it as a sort of marketing tool with our name attached. We were going to shoot in the fall, but things are pretty crazy now and I’ll likely [have other projects]. So we’ll have it on the shelf, and when the moment’s right return to it. I want to be doing small independent movies at the same time that I’m doing big ones, and just working on my craft as a storyteller.
Written by: Brent Simon
