Momoa is seen on set of his new Guinness commercial.
Courtesy of Guiness
Jason Momoa has a long history and well-documented love affair with Guinness. From visiting headquarters in Ireland while filming Game of Thrones to slamming pints to get pumped for Aquaman, the actor hasn’t been shy about sharing his passion for the stout. There’s a new status update: Guinness debuted a new piece of content co-directed by and starring Momoa and produced by his production company On the Roam, a partnership that’s been in the works for more than a decade.
The spot, which hit social media Wednesday with TV spots to debut next week, opens with Momoa discovering that he’s 2 percent Irish and follows him as he dashes out of a sushi restaurant to begin the celebrations with a sprint across town to a pub. “My whole company is in it, we produced it, I co-directed it with my best friend and then I wrote it with another best friend. My mom’s in it. My kids aren’t of legal age, but if they were, I would’ve ran past them or done some sort of action scene with them,” says Momoa of the family affair, which he co-directed and produced with Brian Mendoza, his longtime creative partner. “It abso-fucking-lutely is my dream job.”
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Momoa on Wednesday over Zoom from New Zealand where he’s currently filming a lead role in Jared Hess’s Minecraft opposite Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Kate McKinnon, Jermaine Clement, Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks. The actor opened up on landing the Guinness gig, trying not to ruin scenes by cracking up on the Minecraft set and how he felt after seeing his former colleagues like Timothée Chalamet and Josh Brolin on the big screen in the sequel to Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune.
I’m told the Guinness partnership is a dream come true…?
On many levels. I mean, with what’s happening in my life right now, I’m just ticking off the top of all the lists. With Guinness, we’ve been trying to figure out the right thing to do together for over a decade. Back to the mothership, when I was doing Game of Thrones, I went down there [to headquarters] and took my kids there the first time. [Wolf] must have been a year old, so that is about 14 years ago. My partner [Brian Mendoza] was there with me too and they made us a special Guinness, and made me my own beer. They’ve done it a couple of times; we’ve had a lot of great partnerships. They’ve been there for me, always, and I just wanted to put my production company at the ready for them.
It got to the point where I decided, let’s just go write something for them and see if it works out. We took [our pitch] to the team and they loved it. We were doing Chief of War, I remember exactly where I was at the time when we pitched it. A year later, we shot it and I got to have all my best friends in it. My whole company is in it, we produced it, I co-directed it with my best friend and then I wrote it with another best friend. My mom’s in it. My kids aren’t of legal age, but if they were, I would’ve ran past them or done some sort of action scene with them. Aside from that, it’s abso-fucking-lutely is my dream job.
A simple question: What is it that you love so much about Guinness?
She’s beautiful. It has taste. If a woman walks up to the bar and orders a Guinness, it tells me everything I need to know. If she walks up and orders a Bud Light or Corona, I’m like, “Oh.” It’s not the same when someone orders an IPA at 7 percent, it tells me a lot about that person, too. You know what I mean? I can just tell the things that you like. For me, Guinness is a different thing. You’re not slamming beers as you’re sitting down. You may have other drinks with it. It’s not a beer to me. It’s a moment. I need it. I love it. At the end of the day, it shows me that I worked hard. It’s [4 percent alcohol], and most people think it’s really heavy and it’s not. It’s light. It’s one of the lighter beers and has low calories. It’s about sitting down, enjoying that pint and sharing time. It’s a different experience for me. If you go to an Irish pub, you’re sitting there hanging out with no TVs around and you’re just communicating with other humans. I enjoy that. To me, Guiness is like wine or sake. It has its own place. It’s not beer, it’s Guinness.
Momoa is seen on set of his new Guinness commercial.
Courtesy of Guiness
You’ve directed a couple of projects over the years — the movie Road to Paloma, the series On the Roam — so what are you like as a director?
You probably have to ask other people on that one, but I’m just passionate, man. What I love about being a director is that everything up on that picture, I’m going to be judged for. When you’re an actor, you show up, do your job and then the project goes into a hundred different hands with a hundred different opinions. When you’re a director, I get to choose everything, everything in the frame, what people are wearing, who’s acting, everything is what I want. And I like it like that. I like being fully consumed by the craft of filmmaking. Sometimes acting is just not enough and other times, it’s like, whoa, I don’t want to take on this whole story, this whole undertaking. But there are the ones that you want to tell and that reflect the choices that you make. It’s a collaborative process and you hire everyone to help you and to highlight you and take you to another level.
What was it like to direct your mom? I hear that she was nervous for her scene.
I would never think to put my mom into anything. She loves being on sets and being there for me, but never would I put her into that. When this opportunity arose, she got really nervous. It was cute. She would keep doing her little line over and over and over, and then I would change it. She would freak out. But for me, even on a movie like Minecraft, you’re constantly changing lines and trying to make it better or try something new. It’s fun to be able to change it up. But it was hard for her for her first time. She’s very German with a splash of Irish. She said things have to be very right. So, it was fun to watch her squirm a little bit but also have a lot of fun. I mean, her smile in the commercial is priceless. It’s like, oh my God, that’s my mother. I know that smile because I smile that way. Full body smile and you can’t even see. I look at pictures of myself and I can’t even see my goddamn eyes.
Speaking of Minecraft, you’re in New Zealand shooting. How is it going?
It’s amazing. It’s my first time doing a comedy, and I’m surrounded by Jack Black, who is everything. Meet your hero. That’s when you say, “Meet your hero.” He’s so fucking beautiful and so funny. He’s one-of-a-kind. He’s everything you think he’s going to be and more. And Jared Hess is wonderful. I love his movies, and I’m putting full faith in him. He knows his comedy, so I’m just doing everything he tells me to do, which isn’t normally the case in other movies. Jared is laughing his ass off, so that’s good. I got to work with Jermaine Clement yesterday, and Flight of the Conchords is one of my favorites. So it’s going really beautiful. We’ve got a great cast. Danielle Brooks is wonderful. It’s crazy every day, crying laughing and then trying not to mess up people’s takes or you are messing them up and trying to get through takes because you’re soul’s being tickled to the point of crying. It’s a pain in the ass when you try and stop it so it gets worse. Once Jack Black has got you, you’re screwed. He takes it to a whole other level.
Last question as I’m out of time, but I have to go for Dune 2, which is in theaters now. Have you been able to see it?
Fuck yeah, I saw it, bro. I saw it a couple of times. I saw it a long time ago and then I saw it again before it came out. I love that movie. They killed it. God, I’m so proud. Speaking of being proud, Denis Villeneuve is my favorite director in the fucking world. Him and Julian Schnabel are my favorite. They’re the ones who signed my DGA card when I became a member of the Directors Guild of America. It was a massive honor. But Denis, I’m so proud of him. I worked with producer Cale Boyter [on Dune], and we started hanging out and he said, “Dude, I got to put you in a comedy.” Fucking sure enough, I got Minecraft with Jack Black, and Cale is producing this one. I built a really good family of friends on Dune. Timmy just texted me the other day. Javier’s amazing. Josh Brolin is my older brother. I’m just so happy for everyone. That’s the cool thing. You build these relationships and then they just go out and they fucking kill it, man. Excited to see what the future holds and it’s beautiful. It’s a masterpiece, man.
Interview edited for length and clarity.