Page 72 - Esquire (November 2019)

The day before we met, Momoa invited
his followers inside a broken elevator be-
tween the fifth and sixth floors of L’Hermit-
age, where he, Rama, and several friends
were stuck for two hours before the fire
department arrived. Momoa live-streamed
the whole thing, chronicling the increasing
absurdity of this six-foot-four, 240-pound
man trapped in a six-by-six-foot box with a
clumsy dog and no easy way out. At one point,
he attempted to play action hero by ripping
off the ceiling panels, only to find there was a
second ceiling above them. In the end, the fire
department lowered a ladder into the shaft,
and Momoa climbed it, with Rama in his mas-
sive arms. It’s just the sort of thing you do for
your bro, you know?
After I tell him that he has to keep Rama
now, that they are meant to be together af-
ter surviving that ordeal, he gives me a mis-
chievous nod. He’s already instructed the
dog’s trainer, Tony Nikl, to teach Rama a
few Momoa-specific tricks. When Rama
hears the word paparazzi, he growls. When
Rama hears the word shaka, a Hawaiian surf-
ing hand gesture that roughly means “hang
loose,” he shakes. If you want Rama to cock
his head sweetly and stare at you like you
are a god? All you have to say is “Guinness.”
Rama is still working on that one.

OMOA IS in Van-
couver to finish
filming See, cre-
ated by Steven
Knight, who
wrote Eastern
Promises, and di-
rected by Francis
Lawrence, who
helmed the Hunger Games sequels. The dys-
topian drama, about a future world in which
everyone is blind, is one of the first series for
Apple’s new platform, Apple TV+. And the
company has bet big on Momoa by casting
him as the lead. Though he’s already carried
a successful superhero franchise—Aqua-
man is to date the highest-grossing film
based on a single DC character—See marks
Momoa’s first time shouldering a television

“THAT’S WHY I’M NOT THE BEST AT INTERVIEWS,

BECAUSE I START SAYING SHIT I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY.”