From on-set pranks to offensive remarks about rape, Jason Momoa has been embroiled in controversy
more than once.
What else has gotten the star in hot water?
Keep watching for his most controversial moments.
While promoting Aquaman in 2018, Amber Heard appeared on The Tonight Show and talked to
Jimmy Fallon about what it was like to work with Jason Momoa.
She told an anecdote about reading a lot on set because of all the time she spent suspended
in various harnesses for the film's underwater scenes.
It turns out her co-star didn't like that hobby very much.
After Fallon described Momoa as a, quote, "positive, happy dude," Heard quipped,
"Jason's allergic to being ignored.
He can't sit still."
So, no matter what, you know, he will push, prod, nudge, shove you, anything to get your
attention."
Heard revealed that Momoa found a way to make her pay attention to him, telling Fallon,
"He adopted this method of ripping out the last pages of my book, which is annoying."
"You get to the last, like, 10 pages, and they'd just be gone."
Momoa himself told the same story at an IGN event at Comic-Con, revealing that he gave
her the pages back on the last day of shooting.
"She'd read a 600 page book in a day, and so I found her book and I ripped out the last
10 pages."
Co-star Nicole Kidman looked confused and concerned by the story, while Patrick Wilson,
who played the film's villain, cackled.
The anecdote didn't go over well online, to say the least.
Jezebel compared Momoa to Gaston, the book-averse Disney villain who tormented Belle in Beauty
and the Beast.
"Belle, it's about time you got your head out of those books and paid attention to more
important things."
Back in 2011, Jason Momoa participated in a panel at Comic-Con about Game of Thrones
where he discussed his breakout role as the barbaric Khal Drogo.
During the discussion, he went in-depth about why he likes acting in the fantasy genre,
saying,
"I love that genre, because there are so many things you can do, like rip someone's tongue
out of their throat and get away with it and rape beautiful women."
Momoa had also flippantly discussed the subject of rape on the HBO series in an interview
with the New York Post that same year, telling them,
"Yeah, I'm raping Emilia [Clarke on screen].
I love her, but I'm hurting her and she's crying.
We could have made it longer, but you get the idea."
Thankfully, he clarified,
"I'm not a rapist!
I prefer my women to enjoy sex."
The video of his offensive Comic-Con comments resurfaced in 2017 thanks to a fan who posted
the clip to Twitter.
As Complex reported, several people reinterpreted the video in the context of the ongoing #MeToo
Movement, and they expressed their displeasure on social media.
Momoa eventually posted a screen-capped Notes App apology on Instagram, writing in part,
"I made a truly tasteless comment.
It is unacceptable and I sincerely apologize with a heavy heart for the words I said."
In 2020, Jason Momoa sparked controversy for posting photos on Instagram alongside disgraced
actor and director Mel Gibson.
As Yahoo! noted in their coverage of the post, Gibson has long been accused of making numerous
racist and sexist comments, including an infamous rant when he was pulled over on suspicion
of DUI in 2006.
Newsweek even has a comprehensive roundup of Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic remarks,
all of which have led to regular backlash despite the fact that he still appears in
films.
That controversial reputation didn't seem to bother Momoa.
In addition to posing with Gibson, Momoa showered him with praise in the caption of the snaps,
writing in part,
"ICON.
legend MEL you made my childhood amazing.
MAD MAX MARTIN RIGGS WILLIAM WALLACE in my opinion even a greater director.
thank you sir for APOCALYPTO and yes anything you need from me IM F—ING IN MEL."
Needless to say, many fans were not happy, noting in the comments section that both Momoa's
then-wife and stepdaughter, Lisa Bonet and Zoë Kravitz, are Jewish.
One person wrote,
"This is SO incredibly wack and disappointing."
Momoa never addressed the controversy, preferring instead to let it simmer by leaving the post
up.
Even so, he and Gibson haven't worked together.
On the Apple TV+ show See, Jason Momoa plays a blind warrior named Baba Voss.
While one might think the show would be controversial for casting a sighted actor in a blind role,
according to Fanbye, the production seems to have done a solid job of being inclusive
both in front of and behind the camera.
That said, Momoa still managed to cause controversy around the show for an unexpected reason:
he gave a bear a cookie.
As the actor himself noted on Apple Music's Beats 1, the scene in See where his character
brawls with a bear was accomplished without any CGI.
Alongside a behind-the-scenes video shared on Instagram in 2019, he explained that he
fed the bear out of his own mouth, writing,
"The bear needs to know your scent.
So here's my cookie kisses big guy."
The video annoyed animal-rights group PETA, who released a statement on Twitter, saying,
"In a sad stunt, a captive bear ate a cookie out of actor Jason Momoa's mouth.
Bears used for entertainment are often torn from their mothers as infants, beat, & forced
to perform."
They begged Momoa to avoid exploiting animals in the future.
[ROAR]
One of Jason Momoa's best qualities is that he's an environmentalist.
In January 2021, he spoke to the United Nations about the climate emergency.
He even starred in a PSA where he punches plastic water bottles out of people's hands.
It's that anti-water bottle stance that got Momoa into a brief celeb feud in 2019.
When fellow The Lego Movie 2 star Chris Pratt posted an advertisement on Instagram that
features him holding a plastic water bottle, Momoa commented on the photo, writing,
"Bro i love u but wtf on the water bottle.
No single use plastic.
Come on."
As Momoa's disappointment made headlines, Pratt responded, writing,
"Aquaman!
You're completely right.
[...] I always carry my big gallon size reusable water jug around with me too.
I even had it that day!!!"
Momoa then shared a photo of himself and Pratt side-hugging, captioning it in part,
"​​I'm sorry this was received so badly today.
I didn't mean for that to happen.
I'm just very passionate about this single-use plastic epidemic."
​
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