Jason Momoa talks Aquaman, Game Of Thrones and why Australia is his second home

Whether he’s cheering for the Maroons in State of Origin, Port Adelaide in the AFL, or rock climbing in the Grampians, Aquaman and Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa is every inch the honorary Aussie.

Jason Momoa feels right at home in this part of the world — handy, given the Game Of Thrones and Frontier star spent most of last year in Australia filming DC superhero blockbuster Aquaman on the Gold Coast.

He’s a rugby fan, mad about the Maroons and the All Blacks. If you’re talking AFL, he’s a Port Adelaide man.

He’s a surfer and avid rock climber, his choice spots for the latter being the Grampians in Victoria and Castle Hill on New Zealand’s South Island.

He even lived in South Australia for a few years back in the mid-’00s, taking the chance to travel everywhere from Alice Springs to Coffs Harbour to Perth. (He was engaged to former McLeod’s Daughters actor Simmone Mackinnon at the time. He’s now married to Lisa Bonet, with whom he has two children.)

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Momoa has strong ties to Australia.

On the Gold Coast set of film Aquaman, James Wan directs actors Amber Heard, Jason Momoa and Willem Dafoe inside a sunken Spanish galleon.

Jason Momoa filming Aquaman.

And he considers the Queen of Australia — well, the Queen of Atlantis in Aquaman, at least — to be ohana, family. Once he finally wrapped his head around working with Her Royal Fabulousness Nicole Kidman, that is.

“It’s a bit surreal,” Momoa said while Aquaman was shooting at Village Roadshow Studios. “She’s just a legend. I’m gonna try to keep my cool. We have a lot of family friends and people in common — like my stepdaughter (Bonet’s daughter Zoe Kravitz) worked with her on Big Little Lies. So there’s nothing but good. I’m just excited to meet her. It’s gonna be a trip, having my scenes with her and staring at her.”

Years after being cast as DC’s defender of the deep Arthur Curry/Aquaman, Momoa finally got to swim into action in last year’s Justice League. But his origins were kept on ice to be revealed in spectacular style in the character’s headline solo outing, directed by Aussie James Wan.

Aquaman reveals how this reluctant hero, son of Queen Atlanna and a human lighthouse keeper, embraces his destiny to unite the worlds above and below water — once he’s given a good shove by Princess Mera, played by Amber Heard.

If Momoa’s head spun at the thought of Nicole Kidman playing his mum, it exploded when he found out who’d be playing Aqua-Dad.

“Temuera Morrison — that’s a huge one for me,” Momoa says of the Kiwi veteran. “What he did in Once Were Warriors was unbelievable and a huge inspiration for how I played Khal Drogo in Game Of Thrones: to hate me, to love me and to follow me … it’s just so complex.

“For a brown skin, he’s who I looked up to.”

Oscar winner Nicole Kidman plays Aquaman’s mother.

Cast mates Jason Momoa, Amber Heard and Nicole Kidman at Comic Con in San Diego. Picture: AFP

While he may have the stature of a Dwayne Johnson or Chris Hemsworth, Momoa’s approach to physically embodying a movie hero is a lot more laid-back. Don’t get us wrong — he works out with the best of them when it’s required, but he can think of a million things he’d rather do than hit the gym.

“They’re not paying me enough” for that, he says. “Generally I’ll go surf or rock climb, that’ll keep me in shape.”

That rebel with a cause streak is strong in Arthur Curry, too. And Momoa related strongly to his outsider status, having split his childhood between Hawaii and rural Iowa.

“While the Atlanteans are evolved and strong, Arthur’s been in the dirt, he’s got humanity, he’s gruff, he’s a smart ass, he’s a brawler … then he becomes this king,” Momoa says. “He’s the only one who can walk on both sides.”

The other thing character and actor have in common is charm, something director Wan really wanted to pump up in Aquaman by giving Momoa and Heard a real Romancing the Stone vibe to play with.

“At the end of Justice League, Arthur’s very disgruntled, he has a chip on his shoulder,” says Wan. “But if you’ve met Jason, he’s very charismatic and very funny and goofy and that’s a part of him I really like. So my job was to try and pull as much of that, his personality, out into the character. People are gonna be pleasantly surprised to see how fun he actually can be.”

Momoa agrees that he’s put more of himself into Aquaman than any character he’s played before.

Jason Momoa and Amber Heard acting in Aquaman.

Jason Momoa, Amber Heard and Patrick Wilson. Picture: Getty

“I’m nothing like Drogo,” he says, pulling a grim Dothraki face. “James wanted a lot more comedy and cheekiness and charm … and I’m so charming! No one really knows I smile sometimes, so you get to see me f---in’ smile for once and play that little wink in my eye.”

While Aquaman is under considerable pressure to deliver — it’s pretty much last chance for any of the Justice League heroes to impress, Gal Gadot’s standout Wonder Woman aside — Momoa just hopes fans are willing to dive into this journey with him.

“It’s the most diverse and fun adventure I’ve ever done. The places we go on this — from the bottom of the ocean to the Sahara — it’s just an unbelievable journey.”

Momoa is doing his bit to make sure the movie swims, launching it with a world tour that has already taken in Beijing to London and which will bring him back to his home away from home for premieres on the Gold Coast and Sydney this week.

“I love it down there man,” he says. “You guys have got it going on.”

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