Jason Momoa talks Minecraft movie mayhem, 5 all-time metal tracks, and a Dune 3 return

There’s only two ‘M’s in Momoa, but there are three ‘M’s that make for a great Jason Momoa film — muscles, mayhem and metal. You can add a fourth ‘M’ to that list this week — Minecraft — as the Hollywood giant builds out his CV with his first comedic role.

A Minecraft Movie is a silver screen adaptation of the best-selling video game of all time — its production an inevitability given its sold well over 300 million copies, and more than 170 million monthly players. Directed by Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess, it’s a surreal rollercoaster ride through one of the most recognisable worlds in gaming history.

But Momoa’s involvement was a lot less inevitable — surprising, even. As Game of Throne’s Khal Drogo, Conan the Barbarian, Aquaman and Dune’s Duncan Idaho, we’re more used to seeing him lobbing the heads off blood-thirsty bad guys than stacking building blocks and slapsticking for laughs.

It’s a relief and a joy then to see Momoa take to his rib-tickling role with confident relish in this family flick then. As Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, Momoa plays a hulking former professional video game champ, down on his luck after his neon 1980s heyday.

Sucked into the cubic Minecraft “Overworld” alongside co-stars Jack Black, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers and Sebastian Hansen, they’ll have to face their fears if they ever hope to get back to the real world.

We sat down with Jason to discuss the film, his retro-gaming youth, and the heavy-metal tracks neither he nor Garrett could live without.

Your Minecraft movie character, Garrett Garrison, was Gamer of the Year in 1989.. but can you remember what you were doing in 1989?

Jason Momoa: Well, I would have been nine or 10. I would have been really big into games, and Guns N’ Roses!

The G 'n’ R love runs in the Shortlist family as well.

JM: Yeah! So I would have been into skateboarding a lot, probably into a lot of metal or, like, you know, hard-rock. Video gaming was a big one for me, I was really into Street Fighter. That was like my favourite.

Do you have a go to character?

JM: Yeah, I'm always Ryu, or Blanka, yeah, every once in a while a little E-Honda. But I definitely love, love Street Fighter.

Do you have any great memories from the Minecraft movie shoot itself?

JM: I mean, this is probably the most fun I've ever had shooting. I've never done a comedy — these guys are getting away with murder! They get to work and laugh all day long. I’m usually all beat up and covered in blood and fighting all the time.

So it's just kind of nice — this movie I'm getting my butt kicked a lot, but it's just nice to be able to laugh. Jack [Black] is just, he's an enigma, man. He just takes your soul and tickles it all and I just have the best time with him.

Is it a more relaxed preparation for a comedy than an action film?

JM: Is it relaxed? Not at all! I was pretty stressed out, this being my first one. I wouldn't say I was relaxed at all, but, um, you know, I was on this project years before Jack, and that's who I wanted. It's like a dream to work with him. And, thank God, he said, yes,

Did you know Jack well before filming?

JM: No, I didn't. I followed him on Instagram, and he did reach out to me. He's like, “are we doing this?” And I'm like, “we're doing it, buddy!” But I always followed him. Yeah, I love his movies, man. He's made some of the best, best movies ever.

You looked like having quite a lot of fun on set. How much room was there for improvisation in the gags?

JM: [Director] Jared Hess is really beautiful like that. We play around a lot just to get the script where it needs to be anyways, so we've already kind of hashed out a lot of things, and we feel comfortable around each other.

Jack and Jared have a great working relationship prior with Nacho Libre. But yeah, he encouraged it. He would always have Jack put more stank on it, “yeah, put more stank, more mustard on it!”, and so. But, yeah it was pretty freestyle. It was already a great script but we played around.

How do you feel about putting more “mustard” on it?

JM: I love it. I'd rather just be pulled back. I mean, as long as I know I have a really good safety net then I'm just gonna jump — it's your job to pull me back. And that goes either way — I mean, like, drama or comedy generally, I feel pretty free. There's moments where I'm intimidated by something, maybe someone I work with, and I'll be like, “Oh…”.

But Jack and I did some of our harder scenes on the first days — we shot the ending first. So we really had to imagine that we've gone through the journey, we've done all these things. That was the first day. And you're kind of like, “I don't know you!”. So I really had to kick it up.

Where do you pull that from? When you've got to go in early on, something that's a little bit harder to conjure on early on. Like filming that final scene on day one?

JM: It stinks! Yeah, it's not fun! I've had to do that on many occasions because of scheduling, whether someone has to leave or come early or there's a certain set piece or something's not ready yet. But it's our job.

And that's the thing, too — what's really special about working on this, Grant Majors, he’s our production designer. We got to live in that physical [Minecraft] world. So they built all the sets, everything.

The green screen was still there, and that work is beautiful, but you’re not going to peer into that. Everything was in our physical world and looked like Minecraft, or what it would look like in the movie Minecraft world. Even the monsters — they would have our stuntmen hold a head on top of their head. It's better than a, you know, tennis ball! As a character, it's just more helpful.

Was there anything you got to take home from the set?

JM: I'm a natural born thief, so I definitely take a lot of things. I actually invited my friend [comedian] Tom Segura to the set — his son really loves Minecraft. So I said “you have to come down here, come to the set, hang with me and Jack”. So he comes down and we’ve got like the little iron and wood that you mix and match up to make something inside Minecraft, and we gave it to him.

So how about the actual character of Garrett himself? Did you get to have much influence in where that went? Is

JM: Yeah a lot. Working with Jared and our producer Cale [Boyter] — we’ve got a really good working relationship, he’s the one that kind of hired me because we did Dune together— we became really good buddies. He's like, “you're funny, Momo, we gotta get you a comedy”. And I'm like, “Please!”. And this is his idea.

How about the look of the character? That's quite a heavy metal get up...

JM: We had an amazing costume designer [Amanda Neale]. So she definitely came in with a bunch of stuff and showed me, and it was wonderful. So she came in pretty hot with the pinks, knew I like pink. But I think Hunk City Rampage [an in-movie-universe retro side-scrolling beat-em up game that Garrett loves] lends itself to a lot of cool, interesting looks. I brought in the vision sunglasses and the claw gloves. Those are from like ‘89, things that I wanted when I was a kid.

Are they now part of the staple Momoa wardrobe?

JM: I’ve always worn those clothes and those shoes, they’re my favourites. It was nice to put them into a character, yeah.

We loved the game, Hunk City Rampage — it feels so spot on to that retro era of gaming.

JM: Yeah, like, good graphics, right?

Yeah. Did it end up being an actual working game?

JM: Sadly no, they just had, like, a loop? I don't think they had a game you can fully play.

So we've got a reader question, and this is from eight year old Harrison…'If you could build something as quickly in real life as you can in Minecraft, what would it be and why?'

JM: Oh, my goodness. What would I build, and why? Gosh, Harrison, what would I build? I'd build some big, big castle, yeah, up in the mountains, or just some extraordinary house.

Garrett is always soundtracked by rocking riffs in the movie. And we know you love your guitars. So if you had to pick your top five riffs or heavy metal tracks, what would they be?

JM: My five favourites.. Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath. For Whom the Bell Tolls — you know, it's just a bunch of Metallica, probably! Pantera: Walk. Yeah, that’s pretty iconic. Maybe Rage Against The Machine with either Freedom or Bulls on Parade. What's the last one? I don't know…

No Guns?

JM: Yeah, sure. Guns N’ Roses, and we’d do Rocket Queen, cool.

So what's next for you after Minecraft?

JM: I'm shooting Supergirl now, playing Lobo, and then got a couple really good secrets coming up to finish off the end of the year… My TV show Chief of War comes out on August 1st. That's been like my dream project, my “Braveheart for Hawaii”, and we’ll probably hopefully do two more seasons of that. Hopefully this does well and I’m going on more adventures in Minecraft world. Then there’s…gosh… Dune 3…

Dune 3! How's that coming?

JM: [Long pause…] It's going well…

…Well?...I guess we'll leave it there then!

JM: We have to, I already got in trouble over Lobo!

Thanks so much for your time, Jason!

JM: You’re great, brother.

A Minecraft Movie is released in cinemas throughout the UK and Ireland on April 4th.