Jason Momoa of The Red Road - Exclusive Interview

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JASON MOMOA “THE RED ROAD” INTERVIEW
By Abbie Bernstein

In Sundance Channel’s new six-episode series THE RED ROAD, premiering Thursday, Feb. 27, Jason Momoa stars as Phillip Kopus. Phillip was born into a Native American tribe (fictitious, but based in series creator Aaron Guzikowski’s script on the Ramapaugh tribe) who live in the Ramapo Mountains near the New York/New Jersey border. He returns home after a long absence, but he rejects the community, which likewise is generally not too thrilled to see him. Phillips’s dad is a Caucasian big-city drug dealer (Tom Sizemore) and Phillip’s mom (Tamara Tunie) is busy raising another boy and would rather her son stay away.

However, when something terrible happens for Jean Jensen (Julianne Nicholson), who knew Phillip back in high school, Phillip sees an opportunity. Phillip approaches another former classmate and current local Sheriff’s Deputy, Jean’s husband Harold Jensen (Martin Henderson). Phillip says he can help. The question is, what does he want in return?

Momoa made an indelible impression as the ferocious Khal Drogo in the first season of GAME OF THRONES. The Hawaiian-born, Iowa-raised actor got his big break as a regular on the series BAYWATCH. He then was on NORTH SHORE, spent five seasons playing an alien on STARGATE: ATLANTIS and headlined the big-screen remake of CONAN THE BARBARIAN.

Lately, Momoa has branched out into writing, producing and directing, with his debut feature ROAD TO PALOMA – which also deals with Native Americans – due out for release later this year. The film stars Momoa, his real-life wife Lisa Bonet and Sarah Shahi (PERSON OF INTEREST).

Momoa is on the Q&A panel sponsored by Sundance Channel for the Television Critics Association press tour. When the panel concludes, the actor gamely sticks around for some follow-up conversation with a smaller group of reporters to talk about all things THE RED ROAD.

Momoa says he did a fair amount of research before production began on THE RED ROAD. This included going up into the Ramapo Mountains and talking to members of the real Ramapaugh tribe. “I just wanted to make sure, when I went and met the tribe, where I was coming from. If I [as the character] was growing up in Hawaii or Iowa, I know exactly what those backgrounds look like. I mean, obviously, in Iowa, it’s all great plains. If I’m going to be in prison and coming back home, I wanted to have those visuals. There, it’s up in the forest, so really the serenity of being up in the mountains up there, [where] the tribe is based – a lot of it is largely in the forest, so just going to meet them was really what I wanted to do.

“The other thing that was interesting for me was, I wanted to talk with them about my character. And what was interesting is, he’s a native, but the tribe doesn’t like him. In the opening scene, you see that – he’s telling these little boys to wipe the paint off their faces. They are Indian and he’s an Indian, but he’s just so hurt that no one likes him in the tribe, and he hates himself. He’s really that lone character who’s not accepted by anyone. He was raised by this white drug-dealing father, and he’s a bad seed, and a lot of things, when you see the story unfold, you see why he was done wrong and why he is the way he is.”

Although THE RED ROAD’s Native American tribe is fictional, the creative team wanted the characters to be as authentic as possible, Momoa relates. “We had a consultant with us the whole time. He actually went through the scripts and things like that, but I think how the other characters are portrayed, the other natives on the show, they really [unint.]. I’m kind of the – like I said before, no one likes me. It’s provocative, and that’s what we like in a story. Here’s a guy who doesn’t agree with anything. He goes against the law, he goes against his own tribe, he goes against anything that’s right. So in that sense, I’m the one that pushes those boundaries, where it’s the show, and their job to maintain a tribe, but I get hired to shake some shit up.”

Momoa sees some similarities between Kopus and Drogo. “It’s like GAME OF THRONES – you assume that Drogo is a bad guy and you’re going to find out what Phil Kopus is made of. And what I love about it is that he’s coming back to his roots, much same way I did in going back to Hawaii and not being raised there. I spent my summers with my father [in Hawaii], but I really wanted to get back to my roots, and now I live there.”

Indeed, there might be some redemption for Kopus, but not in ways we might expect, Momoa hints. “You know what? That’s what I love about this, because I didn’t use it as a choice as an actor – it [redemption] is going to find him. It’s some of the best lessons in life, that’s what life teaches you, about you go searching for something and you don’t find it. He’s definitely not searching for it.”

Playing a “real-world” character wasn’t a priority, Momoa says, but he still welcomes the opportunity that THE RED ROAD provides. “As an actor, you don’t really want to have too many limitations on what you play. I have been very fortunate to have played fantasy and sci-fi. It’s fun, because there are no limitations in those worlds. When this came along, much in the same way that Drogo came up in GAME OF THRONES, I was like, ‘This is my role. This is perfectly made for me.’ And when I got to meet [RED ROAD executive producers] Bridget Carpenter and Aaron Guzikowski – I don’t have a lot of stuff that demonstrates the things I do in this show, and they took a chance. Obviously, I auditioned, and I wanted it. And when I want something, I am going to get it,” he laughs. “So with Phillip, there are a lot of things in my own personal life that I wanted to explore. I wasn’t raised like this guy, so it was really challenging as an actor. It’s definitely the most challenging thing I’ve ever done.”

Momoa’s wife Bonet also has a role in THE RED ROAD. So how is it working with her? “It is hell. She is a bitch,” Momoa jokes. Then he gets serious. “It’s amazing. She was my dream woman when I was that big,” he indicates the size he was when Bonet was on THE COSBY SHOW as Denise Huxtable in the 1980s, “so it’s an honor, and I always wanted to work with her, and I actually wrote her a role in the movie I just directed called ROAD TO PALOMA. That was our first scene together, and it was great, because she’s my love interest in that. In [THE RED ROAD], it’s totally opposite, but I think Sundance saw that and they really liked the chemistry. I mean, we’ve got a good chemistry.”

Bonet is selective about her roles, Momoa adds. “She likes to travel with our family a lot, and we’ve got the young kids and it’s like, [there are] not a lot of great roles. In terms of a great woman role, this is an amazing show. She plays a lawyer in it and she’s standing up for the tribe, so fighting for federal recognition [for the tribe], any injustices that are happening, my wife’s got it. Even though [the characters] grew up together and we’re kind of smitten with each other, [Kopus] won’t cross that boundary. He’s a pretty complicated guy. Like, who doesn’t want to go be with her? He’s messed up. He won’t cross that line. And being that she’s on the other side of it, he’s just in this gray area. So that was fun to play, because it’s really hard – obviously, we have chemistry; we have to make it so it’s not. It was extremely challenging.”

THE RED ROAD poses some physical challenges for its actors, starting with an opening scene where Kopus threatens a friend by nearly drowning him. “I had to be creepy,” Momoa says of the sequence. “You know, what was really hard? I just had to let go. That scene where I grab him and just chuck him into the water. I just grab my buddy and throw him in there. I mean, I love him, and it’s just like, here’s these three guys [physically at odds]”

Again, Momoa relates this to his work in GAME OF THRONES. “same thing with Drogo. I love Emilia Clarke [who plays the Khaleesi, Daenerys Targaryen], she’s my sweetheart, and she’s like family, but then I have to do these things that hurt her, and I’m like, ‘Baby, I love you, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ and then you’re like, ‘Action!’” He growls and yells to convey Drogo’s initial manner. “And you just go crazy, and [after ‘Cut!’ is called] you’re like, ‘I’m so sorry, I love you.’ It’s hard to switch over to that, but it’s fun.”

If someone had told Momoa earlier in life that this is where he’d be today in his career, what might he have said? “I knew I was going be here. It was just a matter of convincing you guys I had it in me. People don’t know when they see one side of me and they don’t really know the other side. I spent the last two years just writing and directing and moving that way, because I love telling stories. It’s why we’re here – to tell stories.”

Is there anything else Momoa would like people to know about THE RED ROAD?

“It’s the greatest thing,” Momoa enthuses. “It’s the greatest script I’ve ever read. I’ve never yelled at a script before, and then I’m like,” he yells in reenacted shock, “‘No!’ and flipping to the next page and freaking out that I’m so excited, just reading the scripts. So I’m really pumped for everyone to see it. And it burns. They burn story. And it’s fun.”

Interviewed by Abbie Bernstein