Jason Momoa was “starving” and “in debt” after Game of Thrones

Jason Momoa teases his role in Dune, dives into his upbringing, and explains that he and his family were in dire straights after Game of Thrones.

Jason Momoa is a huge name in Hollywood right now: he’s Aquaman in the DC Cinematic Universe, he’s headlining the post-apocalyptic drama See on Apple TV+, and Game of Thrones fans still remember him as Khal Drogo, the fierce Dothraki warrior and one-time husband of Daenerys Targaryen.

But as much notoriety as that role brought him, it didn’t get him to a good place financially, as he revealed in an interview with InStyle. “I mean, we were starving after Game of Thrones,” he said. “I couldn’t get work. It’s very challenging when you have babies and you’re completely in debt.”

Then as now, Momoa was living with his wife Lisa Bonet and their two kids in Topanga Canyon in California. Obviously, he got over the hump, to the point where it’s weird to think he was ever in dire straights.

And his climb into the ranks of the Hollywood elite is ongoing. Soon enough, he’ll appear in Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, alongside some huge names. “It was ‘Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem,’ and I’m just like, ‘Oh my god. I can’t believe my name was with those names.’ I feel like I’m still a kid, freaking out,” he said.

Momoa will be playing Atreides family swordmaster Duncan Idaho, a role that’s an excellent fit for his physicality and larger-then-life personality. “It’s not alien versus alien,” Momoa said of Dune. “It’s about conflicts between human tribes. And greed. It really hits home right now.”

Unfortunately, Dune was pushed out of its December 2020 release date and is now scheduled for October 1, 2021, but it look like it’ll be worth the wait.

In any case, Momoa’s place in the hearts and minds of viewers seems secure. He may be a huge star, but there’s something very relatable about him, maybe because of his character-building background. He was raised by a single mother in rural Iowa but made regular trips back to Oahu in Hawaii to visit his father, and his mixed race heritage made him an easy target for bullies. “I got beat up a lot,” he remembered. “Just for being slightly different—it was gnarly. I mean, I wore Birkenstocks in middle school, and it was like, ‘You are a freak!’”

Speaking of that, his sense of style could be another reason he’s so beloved, because just look at it:

You’ll also be able to see Momoa back in action as Aquaman when the Snyder Cut of Justice League comes out on HBO Max next year.

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