Jason Momoa Wants to Make Aquaman “A Great King”

It’s almost time for the release of the official trailer for Warner Bros.’s upcoming superhero film Aquaman, and no one is more excited than star Jason Momoa.

In a recent on-set interview (okay, recently published interview that actually took place in 2017) with Collider, Momoa spoke a bit about his excitement surrounding the character of Arthur Curry and how he wants to ensure he’s “a great King”.

The outlet asked Momoa if he thought of Aquaman as a “serious dude” and/or someone you wouldn’t want to have a beer with. (I mean, it’s totally a personal life goal to have a Guinness with Jason because I’m half his size and could probably keep up!)

MOMOA: Oh, absolutely. I think I wanted to make him that way. I think that’s why they kind of hired me to play the role. I mean, he’s serious, but he’s just jaded. He’s just seen so much and he doesn’t really trust anyone. I think it’s all about building the trust and that’s the whole Justice League thing-just being the team. I think-I definitely want him to be-y’know you can’t sit down and have a beer with Superman, you know what I mean? You can’t. There’s things you can do with Batman that you can’t do with-I wanted Aquaman definitely to be that guy that- he’s blue collar. I mean the whole thing about him, I wanted him blue collar, he’s raised with his dad, worked on bikes, worked on old cars with his father and at a certain age he’s given this gift. He doesn’t know how to deal with it. His dad doesn’t want him in the water, because he doesn’t want him taken away. The only thing he does know is that his mother was killed. He wants nothing to do with these people. Fucking hates ’em. And, I wanted to see what kinds of jobs he did when he left his dad’s house, working on big oil rigs-he can go underneath and he saved people and he hasn’t saved people. And the side he can’t cope with is his human side. That’s what makes him great. That’s what’s gonna make him a great king is his humanity. Cause, the Atlanteans are very-it’s a totally different race down there and how they treat people.

And so, I think what’s gonna make him a great king is that he walks those two lines and what makes him powerful and what makes him weak is that he’s human and what makes him powerful and what makes him the greatest king ever is that he’s human with his Atlantean. So, it’s a really cool area to discover, like, which one is a superpower and which different role-to be human and Atlantean and to be Atlantean on the surface. And so, him just, like, having his loss, he drinks. And, it’s like, he’ll cover up those things. He doesn’t want to talk about it. I mean, Zack [Snyder] was really clear on, like, ‘I want Outlaw Josey Wales, I want the outsider, I want more than Batman the loner.’ But, he was great with people that were just living the tides and in these far off little villages and these people just accepted him. He lived in and was with more on the side of the people, so you find him in these remote spots.

Aquaman hits theaters on December 21st, 2018.