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Jason Momoa is no stranger to action, sci-fi, fantasy or literary adaptations, but the actor has still never appeared in anything like Dune before. Denis Villenueve’s sci-fi epic comfortably topped the box office this past weekend, setting a pandemic-era record for Warner Bros. in the process, and his performance has been singled out as one of the highlights.
The 42 year-old provides jolts of energy and enthusiasm during his scenes as Duncan Idaho, and he’s really the only genuine source of humor in the entire film. As it turns out, Villenueve actively sought out Momoa to play the part, something the star admitted doesn’t really happen to him all that often.
In fact, he revealed in a recent interview with IndieWire that he literally ran down from the top of a mountain when he discovered the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker was trying to reach him, such was his excitement at the prospect of partnering up with the Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director.
“I got a call from my agent literally on top of a mountain, and I was shocked, and he was like, ‘Denis Villeneuve wants to talk to you right now. I thought it was a prank. He said, ‘He wants to talk to you right now. He wants you for a role. He won’t tell anyone what it is.’ Me and my best friend, who loves Denis, ran down the mountain, into the room, FaceTimed him, and he had everything laid out. He had this whole department there in costume. Everyone was staring at me, and he had a whole book. It was this manifest. Pictures, everything. It was almost like he was pitching it to me, and I was taken aback. He asked if I would play Duncan. That’s never happened before.”
Momoa is carving out a niche for himself as the go-to guy when an effects-driven production on the big or small screen needs someone as charismatic as they are jacked, with Dune the latest addition to that particular side of his filmography after Stargate: Atlantis, Game of Thrones, AppleTV+ series See and his stint as the DCEU’s Aquaman.