Turns out Jason Momoa isn't chill all the time. Photo / AP
Turns out Jason Momoa isn't chill all the time. Photo / AP
Jason Momoa has slapped down a reporter for asking him whether he "regrets" filming a disturbing rape scene in Game of Thrones, calling the question "icky" and saying it left him with a "bad feeling" in his stomach.
The towering Hawaiian actor played a brutal Dothraki warlord, Khal Drogo, in the HBO show's first season. He's subsequently risen to a new level of fame, taking on high-profile roles in films like Aquaman and the upcoming sci-fi adaptation Dune.
Momoa recently spoke to the New York Times, which published an edited transcript of the interview on Friday. About halfway through, things turned awkward.
The reporter, David Marchese, brought up Game of Thrones' controversial treatment of female characters, ranging from its use of gratuitous nudity to its graphic depictions of rape.
"I don't know how much you followed any of this, but Game of Thrones inspired a lot of discussion about its depiction of scenes of sexual assault, and its treatment of women," he pointed out.
There were multiple harrowing rape scenes throughout the show's eight seasons. One of them came in its very first episode. It showed Momoa's Drogo forcing himself on Daenerys Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke.
This was particularly contentious because in the book from which Game of Thrones was adapted, the sex was consensual.
In a recent book about the making of the show, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, author George R.R. Martin said showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss "never discussed" the change with him and it made the episode "worse, not better".
Benioff and Weiss, for their part, stood by their decision.
"Here's a girl who is absolutely terrified of this barbarian warlord she's being married off to, it's the last thing in the world she wants, yet somehow by the end of this wedding night she seems to be in a completely joyful sexual relationship with him. It didn't entirely work for us," said Benioff.
Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones. Photo / HBO
Weiss argued that later sexual encounters between Drogo and Daenerys in the books are not consensual, and that wouldn't necessarily make sense in the medium of television.
"In the book that works, but we just didn't have that amount of time and access to the character's mind. It turns too quickly. It was something the actors themselves felt wasn't gelling," he said.
Anyway that's a lot of preamble, but I think it helps to know the context here. Back to the New York Times interview.
"Do you think differently today about those scenes? Would you do one now? Do you have any regrets? Those types of scenes can seem as if they belong to an older cultural moment," Marchese asked.
"Well, it was important to depict Drogo and his style. You're playing someone that's like Genghis Khan," Momoa answered.
"It was a really, really, really hard thing to do. But my job was to play something like that, and it's not a nice thing, and it's what that character was.
"It's not my job to go, 'Would I not do it?' I've never really been questioned about, 'Do you regret playing a role?' We'll put it this way: I already did it. Not doing it again."
The interview turned noticeably colder after this point, with Momoa giving blunter responses and sometimes refusing to answer at all.
"You said you have a vision for the whole totality of Aquaman. Are you able to articulate that vision for me?" Marchese asked a short time later.
"No," Momoa said.
"Oh, man," said Marchese.
"Sorry," said Momoa.
The reporter tried another question.
"You also mentioned how being in superhero movies can allow you to make movies you really care about. What other kinds of movies would those be?" he asked.
"The ones I wanted to do we're doing, and I can't really talk about it. This is just the wrong time. You've got three subjects to talk about: you've got See, you've got Dune, you've got Sweet Girl. It's unfortunate I can't talk about it, but we have enough other things to talk about," Momoa said, shooting him down again.
So Marchese tried talking about Sweet Girl, an upcoming Netflix film in which Momoa's character seeks justice against a pharmaceutical company for pulling a potentially lifesaving drug from the market before his wife's death.
He asked which elements of the film Momoa thought would "resonate" with viewers.
"How could big pharma not register with people right now? I've never played anything like that before, never researched anything like that before. Big pharma's pretty scary, buddy," the actor said.
"What research stood out for you?" Marchese followed up.
"I don't really want to talk about big pharma right now," said Momoa.
At last, Marchese seemed to conclude the conversation was going nowhere.
"OK, I guess we're done. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me," he said.
But before hanging up the Zoom call, Momoa circled back to the offending question.
"Yeah, and I wanted to bring something up that left a bad feeling in my stomach," he said.
"When you brought up Game of Thrones, you brought up stuff about what's happening with my character, and would I do it again. I was bummed when you asked me that.
"It just feels icky, putting it upon me to remove something. As if an actor even had the choice to do that. We're not really allowed to do anything.
"There are producers, there are writers, there are directors, and you don't get to come in and be like, 'I'm not going to do that because this isn't kosher right now, and not right in the political climate.' That never happens.
"So it's a question that feels icky. I just wanted you to know that."
