Jason Momoa
👤 PersonPodcast Appearances
what's what's me in and out of the door how quick you gotta go how quick if you're if you're if you're dirty and you need to shower and get dressed to go out yeah 10-15 minutes easy yeah that's it quick yeah what about when the hair was super armpits nuts ass and then fucking out the dough but the hair what about when the hair was super long that that's a beast my hair is super long it's just uh yeah yeah it's just in the back yeah i'm not cutting my hair again
Because, I mean, I feel like there's a lot of chlorine in the water.
I was supposed to be in New York, but then the flight got canceled.
So my intention was to be... I was supposed to do Fallon tonight.
So I flew in and then we got stuck in a storm and then I couldn't get in.
I was supposed to do Fallon, but I mean, I can do you guys.
I've never agreed to do these because I'm going to get myself in trouble.
I mean, listen, I think this is probably way better to do because it's way more personal and you get time.
Well, this is just a conversation bullshit thing.
Yeah, it just depends on what you're supporting.
Like right now, I'm doing like my dream project.
Like it's my Braveheart or my Dances with Wolves.
So the Chief of War I have coming out is 1790s Hawaii.
But it's been like my 10-year project that I did with Apple.
And it's all like just right after The White Man came.
So it's all in the language, which is, you know, very – it's a pretty big deal.
It's a subtitle, but it slowly gets into English.
He leaves Hawaii, and he goes out to the world, and he comes back with all the weapons.
But he basically gets to see the world and just see what's coming, and then he unites.
It's about the unification of the Hawaiian Islands.
I mean, it's just, it's never happened before, you know?
These images, my great-great-great-grandfather has never even seen anything like this.
So we've only had these in paintings or in museums.
Yeah, so it's just like wanting to make something about King Kamehameha and just like,
but I needed something that would encompass a lot of things that were going on.
It's like telling Abraham Lincoln's story, and you're like, that's why Spielberg did Gettysburg.
It's just the little moments of his life, but it's like, how do I encompass this whole area of Hawaii?
I mean, I think when Cook first came, they were kind of blown away.
They kind of snuck onto the ship and maybe took a couple things.
And when they got stuck in a storm, they came back.
And so that's when Cook died on the big island.
It's very much like an Arthurian kind of, you know, the Guinevere, Sir Lancelot, King Arthur story between you have this love story.
At the same time, you have us, a character that leaves Hawaii.
And that's what he brings back, all the weapons.
and you get to see what's happening in Hawaii at the time.
that I'll do because, I mean, it's not like I'm playing a superhero or something like that.
I mean, like I'm putting on outfits that you're not even allowed to – I mean, they're just in museums.
So the things that we're wearing, I wouldn't even be allowed to wear.
You know, the movies we had were from, like, Aotearoa.
Like, Once Were Warriors or, like, Whale Rider.
So it really kind of united Polynesia because there's not really – everyone comes to Hawaii.
They make movies there, but they don't make Hawaiian movies.
This thing is something that's never happened before.
And at the same time, we didn't really have the resources.
And so it's really united Polynesia because we got Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Tahitian, Maori, all these different cultures helping us tell this story.
My parents got divorced when I was six months old.
I left at a very young age, but I was raised in Iowa, which is really what most people think is great.
I grew up in the Midwest, which is, if you grew up in the Midwest, you kind of know that it's a pretty spectacular place.
You grow up with like, I mean, my work ethic, family values, like it's just, it's a very strong place.
Having said that, I grew up where Bridges of Madison County was made.
So I'd go from literally a small country town to going to like kind of the reservation of the Hawaiian side.
And it's not really being accepted there or being accepted there.
Yeah, so when I was in college, I went out to Colorado, and that's where I was going.
And then I kind of, my family, I come from one of the biggest surf families in Hawaii.
So I kind of went over there to really sink in with my family, get to know my father better.
And I was 19, and then a TV show came, and I ended up, I was just folding T-shirts at the family surf shop, and then I ended up
get an elite role on this really horrible show that just fucking killed me.
And my cousin, Brian Keolana, he was the one who was towing in with Laird and all this stuff.
surf these big waves my my family so i took the summer off and i went over there and then the moment i was supposed to go back to school i got the lead role so i was just like it was wait wait on the surfing part did you have you been towed into waves like do you surf those come on i towed in like a 20-foot wave with uh out in mccool this is a real man you guys i know i know come on
I was with Dave Kalama, my friend Joe Flanagan, and Laird Hamilton.
And I was about, we're about seven miles into it.
And so the board just went, I couldn't even see it anymore.
I mean, I was trained pretty well, so it was fine.
So I was just, I took quite a few on the head.
They were like 10-foot Hawaiian waves, but...
unbelievable you were i'm literally probably a half mile at that point offshore and it was just i was it's actually this place is called shit fucks and it's literally because there's all this water that pulls out and dollar drinks on thursdays and it just it just it just it pulls you out and you just get hit with these waves so i was stuck in this crazy spot which is probably the outer reef and unknown to me i was really on the outer reef and um
They couldn't see me, and I had my paddle, and I was waving it, and they couldn't see me, and the waves were so big, it basically took my shorts off.
I looked in, and I was just like – my daughter at that time was three months old, and I was – I just – I lost it.
Well, what ended up happening, I was out there for a while, and then I just couldn't see anyone come in to get me, and I couldn't move anymore, and my arms and my legs gave up after –
I was out there for a while, but Laird had to go in and then go all the way around me and paddle up behind me.
It's a coastal paddle, so it goes with the trade winds, so you're going down the coast.
And then he came from behind, and I had already given up.
I couldn't move my arms anymore, and I bubbled down, and then my toe fell.
Like I literally gave up and I'm screaming inside and my foot just hits the outer reef.
And I don't know if it was a fucking whale or like just could be one rock, but I just reached down, grab it.
I jump up, I get hit by another wave and I dig my feet into the coral and I'm literally in the middle of the ocean.
And I'm just, I could barely put my lips above just to breathe and get a break.
already given up and died and have a second chance at it and and then i still stayed out there for like 10 minutes i'm just hanging on the side of this reef and um and then i hear laird come from behind and he's on my board towing his board and i get on and he's like you're right and i'm like no and i get back on the board and we start paddling he's like you got to go
paddling out and I just keep trying to go over every wave I lose the board he loses the board it's just the shit fucking it is brutal getting out of the spot and so we end up getting out really far on the end like pretty much on the shelf of Maui and I have seven more miles to paddle my feet are covered in blood and I'm just literally like with my ancestors just paddling the rest of this way head down and we get out and I mean I could have been trolled
And we get in and that's, I used to smoke and I used to smoke like two, three packs a day.
my kids couldn't stop for my my ex i couldn't i couldn't stop smoking and uh the moment i came out i never smoked again like i just really just died just died like i tried and tried but like i couldn't do it again because i just i gave up like i gave up my life do you remember the moment you felt that you were saved that you that he actually that you actually got through it do you remember that moment i remember seeing him but i was like uh but you know i was 10 minutes
You know, that would have been, had there not been the outer reef, like had there not been some, you know, and I do believe my ancestors.
I do believe my, you know, I prayed to my grandmother, my grandpa.
I mean, I was, I was, I was reaching and I was in a bad position.
And, uh, you're stuck out there in that kind of ways with no board, you're
I think, you know, I have qualities that are – I don't know.
I did a lot of stupid shit, and I just really was like pissed at myself for the position I was in and probably tortured myself even more for the stupid shit that I did.
It was a bit of a hard learning curve, but I feel like I've always had that where it's just like –
I think if you have, yeah, I think there's a potential that you have that needs to come out.
And I just, until I met the people that actually, like, until I met my partners, until I met the people that actually made me get those things out, I was just bashing myself with addiction and drugs.
Yeah, you go through that stage, you've got to get it out.
All the things that we did when we were younger, I'm glad it wasn't handed out.
So having said that, I've been directing for the last almost 12 years now.
if someone's going to judge me on something, like I took this choice, I made all these choices instead of just being an actor.
It's nice just to go to the trailer and be an actor, but I also love, I mean, this is the way my brain works.
I love, I just love being responsible for those things.
I mean, like, listen, I fell in love with acting because I was a biology major.
I was a science major, and that's what I wanted to do.
It was like 1,300 people showed up down there.
And so, I mean, like, it just... You know, I didn't know a thing about it.
And every movie I'd watch, I'd just play that character the next day.
You know, if I watched Fifth Element, I was Gary Oldman that day.
If I watched Fight Club, I was fucking Tyler Durden in that episode.
And so, I mean, I literally just... It was practice and doing all that.
And having said that, every grip and like from catering to the grip, makeup, everyone, they're on my show.
And I'm coming home telling our people's movie.
And, you know, I've dug myself out of massive, massive holes like that.
You know, I learned my, I went through college doing, you know, Stargate Atlantis and hiding in Canada and making a sci-fi show.
And I was like, listen, I'm going to shoot this myself.
So I started at that point, I could write, direct, do all this stuff on my own.
Cause I was like 22 episodes, nine months of my life.
You know, it's just like banging out stuff and you're like, no, that was my college.
And then I had an accident and took some time off.
But I got married, had some kids, and then Game of Thrones came out.
And then no one knew what the fuck to do with that guy.
You're kind of stuck in that jail until you get to the fourth season of it.
And I was like, while we did Game of Thrones, I co-wrote my first movie and I did Road to Paloma.
I made Pride of Gypsies, which is a bunch of actors, a group of friends, and we just made movies together.
And, you know, some of us, we'd all hold the boom.
And so we all came from that thing where it's just we did the work.
And that's how we kind of built the, you know, I'm not going to wait for anything.
So we just kind of went about it that way because I was like, no one's going to give me this shit.
Yeah, that was a turning point we got to respect.
And even though I played a really good character, played it and did my job well.
But it was... I mean, it's a thing where it's like... I'm a huge SNL fan.
They just, you know, and they just use me as action or I don't say much.
And so it's a very weird thing to kind of live in that action and you're this and that.
Because my mom and my dad are both painters, right?
My mom, you know, I was raised watching Rear Window and Gone with the Wind and Streetcar Named Desire.
I was raised with a single mother that worked four jobs in Iowa.
Even though I grew up into this body, I'm a total art nerd.
You know, so it's like... I just, I mean, until you get to know me, and like, I think we've had a little bit of time with each other, some of us, but it's like, I just...
It was my first time doing a comedy, doing Minecraft finally with Jack Black.
But you drop it in like I'm smoking aces and shit like that.
Like that stuff is like, you know, when you have little roles that come in, you're like, I want to support this and come in and do something.
I love if I can add and get the budget of whatever they need to do.
I'd rather make my movies and I like them small.
I don't want to direct like a massive – this is probably the biggest it will ever be.
Like when I directed Chief of War, I directed four or five units.
So you might have asked this earlier, Will, like a crazy story about Chief of War.
When we first wrote it, the whole finale is about these two cousins fighting over the big island.
And the volcano goes off in history, and it's literally snowing ash, and the volcano's coming down.
And the volcano, it's kind of like, let's just say it's 50,000 versus 10,000.
And the volcano comes down and wipes out the persons who lives in that territory.
So when we wrote this, I literally saw on the calendar in the production meeting, I go, boom, volcano is going to go off.
And everyone's laughing at me like, no, no, no, it's not going to go off.
We're driving between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.
And I tell my partner, I'm like, bro, it's going to go off.
And about four hours later, production calls.
Mauna Loa goes off, which is probably 10 plus years since it went off.
No one's worked during a volcano, so we're checking air quality and all those kind of things.
That's the first time in human written history that both volcanoes went off.
I wanted to shoot the fight so it was like we're in the daytime and it goes into night.
So I had to shoot the whole fight in reverse.
You're ushering in 300 extras, 100-something men.
So anyone falls, gets hurt, where do you put the porta potties?
I mean, just all the schematics of like, how do you shoot this massive epic piece in the area where it happened?
I got about four to five units I'm directing at the same time where I built it where I can shoot simultaneously.
So they can be used as extras in the background as I'm shooting this one, as I'm shooting that.
So I kind of designed the whole fucking thing where I can.
I'm sitting in the production meeting and I have it all balanced out.
We sent some people up to go shoot some stuff.
But did you have ash coming down on your shots and stuff?
Otherwise, we wouldn't have been working because it was pretty bad for our health.
But we had ash and all that stuff coming down.
So it's a huge, massive scene where we shot it in reverse.
So we can shoot all our key characters in the same light.
But it's all, yeah, it's completely in reverse.
So the finale is like, that's my, that was like, I'm shooting the finale.
And everyone's like, there's no way we'll pull this off.
So you're like, you're going to be like, it's such a beautiful language.
I mean, fighting in a suit, putting that suit on.
I mean, the best superhero in the world is Lego Batman.
I mean, you're the fucking best in the world, bro.
So his 16th birthday, we go with the whole family.
And I'm with him, and I'm like, gosh, he's trained martial arts his whole life.
You know, but I'm just like, I don't want my kid, child actor, I don't want you in this business, blah, blah, blah.
You know, obviously the mother's been through it.
But he grew up with his dad being this thing.
I really want, it's time for my son to be with me and travel.
And we're like, yeah, Wolfie can come with me.
I would like him to come to Dune because if he really wants to learn acting, I'm like, we're going to be with Chalamet, we're going to be with Denis, we're going to be with Zendaya.
He should be watching his father day in, day out.
I want his work ethic to be like mine of the Midwest.
I want him to see how hard it is getting up at this time, doing this.
It's not digging ditches, but it's fucking hard.
And when you have to do something over and over, and if you're doing a fight scene all day long...
No, you go 10 rounds, 12 rounds, but like this all day and you're in a suit that weighs 40 pounds and you're like, it's brutal.
And so I want him to like understand the business.
Cale did my, I did Minecraft with, I did Dune with.
I was like, listen, we'll send him a stunt, you know.
Do you think we can give him like a Fremen role and he can do some fight scenes and let him be on set?
And he goes, dude, we're casting for the kids, for Chalamet and Zendaya.
Basically, I guess it's like Skywalker and Leia.
And I was like, all right, well, does he act?
You know, it's through sucking that I – Sucking a little less each year.
Like I've had 27 years of fucking sucking that I figured it out.
So I'm not going to – I don't know how to teach it.
So my dear friend Cliff Curtis, who I looked up to, and he was in the show with me.
I was like, can you talk to my son a little bit about acting?
He's like, we want him to come to London and test.
And I had to fly from New Zealand to London...
And my son goes into a room with Denis Villeneuve and has to test with five girls.
No, I'm freaking out because my son is just wild.
But he had to do like a really hard scene that even if I had to do that scene, there's no way I could pull that off.
And I'm doing fucking Dune with my son right now.
Bro, the premiere of Chief of War, we flew to Hawaii.
I'm sitting there, shooting my pants, going like, he's with Zendaya.
He was like, Papa, I have so much respect for you now.
And he understands every person that works with me now.
I don't this, but in the future, but I'm like, I'm just there and I'm watching him.
And, you know, Denny, who I fucking love and dearly, and he's just like...
He's he's just he loves wolf and he's just doing a great job.
And so I'm like, it's the craziest feeling how incredible Yeah, and I'm like god damn it, dude.
I just didn't want him to do it, but he's I'm not gonna lie to you like he's so good I'm not surprised either and I also think like you you want your kids to just be better than you know I'm like this fuckers gonna be like he's gonna blow me away nice so goddamn present and
I really – I'm really good when it's like set for that time.
It's like when I'm – I mean we're all human.
But if I'm with my kids, don't even – it's just people don't have really respect or they don't really think.
But if I'm with my kids, I'm like don't – yeah, but I'm like – I'm like you're never going to get – I can't take my attention away from these beautiful things that I barely get to see.
It's a very challenging thing to navigate, but at the same time, it's the time to do it.
Or if I'm by myself, I'm like, yeah, hell yeah.
But the cool thing is, I love it when it's kids.
Like right now, they're like, it went from Aquaman, and then it went into like, I'm Garbage Man now.
I know you guys probably haven't seen Minecraft, but in Minecraft, I'm like the Garbage Man now.
So all these little kids are like, Garbage Man!
But when it's a grown-ass man, I'm like, just buy me a beer.
It's like, I mean, I'm into this motherfucker in March maybe.
Yeah, I moved everything to New Zealand, too.
I'm building studios down there with Cliff and Tyka.
But it's like I'm basically trying to build studios between Hawaii and New Zealand.
It's just you get to a certain place where I'm like –
You know, I don't want to, like, it's still tax incentives.
And so, like, if everyone can come down here.
i mean we rock climb so it's like i tell my kids i've rocked on the whole life so we rock climb and like that just keeps us in the outdoors and uh rock climbing surfing or this is a real man jason riding you should be ashamed of yourself i really am you know i used to rock climb when i was a little kid but now my it hurts my hands too much as i get older yeah it's just the rock there's nothing soft about a rock it's just scratchy it's scratchy it's like i like my hands to be strong and tough
And they kind of moved me into bass because they both started doing everything else.
I started making a – I started doing – I have a vodka company.
hat i'm trying to see it looks like no mailey mailey mailey yeah so we have a vodka company in montana and so it's been nice to like have these gatherings where you get together with everyone and we play music and we play our favorite songs so we play zeppelin and sabbath and chili peppers and prance and
I'm pretty pissed I got to lose a bunch of weight to get ready for this role.
So I don't exercise and I eat whatever I want.
Basically, when I stop drinking and I eat smart and I exercise, I lose weight.
Generally, I just keep it like I don't do it until I have to.
But my problem is with all the things that you're taking off, like, oh, you do this, do this.
The thing that I don't do is I don't take care of myself.
You got to go like, this is where we can take care of each other.
No, it's only when you, it's only when I, I was like, you know, I grew up skateboarding and I was a skateboarder and a rock climber.
So when I did Conan, they made me put all that,
And then obviously for Aquaman, I had to train.
And I don't find like I, so what I did is I would build rock climbing gyms in our training facilities because I don't want to do sit-ups and I don't want to, I would just rock climb.
To like kind of like the things that you love to do.
Yeah, I just want to have fun doing things I like to do.
So, I mean, like I say physical doing things I love to do.
I just like I think I probably get hurt more lifting weights.
Or I do kettlebells, which has really helped just for my legs.
I mean, like when you're directing, it's so hard.
The hard thing for me is like, I'm such a, I come from such an artist mentality where it's like, it's really hard to balance the physicality when I'm like, I'm giving everything to these things that you're doing.
And the thing is like, I don't sleep much anyways, which is fine.
It's just, I don't, if I, if I, if I burn out doing this to, for just,
Yeah, I'm going to go just have a nice romantic dinner with my lady.
Yeah, she's doing a movie, Thomas Crown Affair right now.
So we're going to go have a nice dinner, and then I go back to Budapest to go back to... Yeah.
The kids are in Budapest, so we're going to be together, and Wolfie's working, and my daughter Lola's there, so her friends are coming over, and we're just celebrating, because I get them in the summer, so we're going to go do fun stuff, have my birthday here in a couple days, so...
I think I was going to stay at the house, maybe get a DJ and just like eat.
No, I just think being, I'm like, I'm with some really cool friends that I haven't seen in a long time, so.
But it's Budapest, so it's like, it's pretty far.