The Jason Momoa Quote of the Day
"The good news is I'm not a rapist. It didn't feel good
I don't like women crying when I'm making love to them."
In December 2009, the filmmakers were looking for a big name who could weather the inevitable comparisons to the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger version.
Then Momoa auditioned for the role of the 7-foot-tall barbarian lord Khal Drogo on HBO's "Game of Thrones" — and inadvertently landed two parts.
"I auditioned for 'Game of Thrones' and that was a very, very hard audition for me, and there was a casting director in the room who was casting for Conan, Kerry Barden, and he's like, 'holy s— I've got your Conan,' " says Momoa.
George R.R. Martin, who wrote the books "Game of Thrones" is based on, was at that fateful HBO audition. The author came away a believer after witnessing Momoa perform a Maori Haka — the aboriginal war dance that the New Zealand rugby team performs to intimidate their opponents.
"He may not be 7 feet tall, but he's certainly a very tall and imposing man that towered over me and the rest of the cast," says Martin. "It was Khal Drogo come to life. I think he will be a better Conan than Arnold."
"Conan the Barbarian" director Marcus Nispel didn't take much convincing either, once he got in the same room as the actor.
But he knew the studio would be more hesitant. So Nispel paid for a screen test video out of his own pocket, shot like a mini-movie in a bamboo forest with three other actors. "He's like, 'kill the bush,' so I'm stabbing this bush in the rain, and he had, like, wind fans and it was lit and backlit, like a crazy rock video," says Momoa. To paraphrase Arnold, Momoa crushed his detractors, saw them driven before them and heard the lamentation of their agents.
I was pretty excited to see this movie, but the first review has deflated a lot of my excitement. Sure in the back of my head I thought maybe this might be a stinker, but I wanted to believe in Jason. Think about it, this guy has so much passion for the role that he goes out and writes a sequel. Confident? Oh yeah! A little foolish? Oh yeah! But the guy is great for quotes and I"m a fan of his even though I've never seen him act.
Fun fact: Jason is married to Lisa Bonet. For us children of the eighties you'll know Lisa as one of the Huxtables in
The Cosby Show. She used to be married to another guy with goofy hair, Lenny Kravitz. Must be her kink.
Starring Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman, Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, and Rose McGowan,
Conan the Barbarian is set to be released in 2D and 3D on August 19th!
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