Acting is a notoriously tricky business, with huge ups and downs and no guarantee of work, even with a herculean amount of hustle. Even today’s biggest stars have had their bad patches, and even after appearing in big titles. One of those is Jason Momoa, who in an interview with InStyle, says that after his character, Khal Drogo, was killed off of Game of Thrones in Season 1, it almost killed him, too.
At the time, he was struggling to pay the bills at the Topanga Canyon house he shares with his now-wife Lisa Bonet. Losing the gig didn’t help. “I mean, we were starving after Game of Thrones,” he told InStyle, in a bit caught by Entertainment Weekly. “I couldn’t get work. It’s very challenging when you have babies and you’re completely in debt.”
Why on earth was Drogo having trouble getting work. As EW points out, he extrapolated on that in James Hibberd’s newish Game of Thrones behind-the-scenes book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, saying that people assumed he was as monosyllabic as his character. “For a while afterward, a lot of people bagged on me. It hurt me a lot. People thought I didn’t speak English,” Momoa recalled. “They didn’t know I was playing a role. I’m nothing like Drogo. I’m like Drogo when I’m being lovey and close to the woman I love and being nice, but his other half is not me. But then everyone fell in love with Drogo when they rewatched the show.”
It wasn’t until he nabbed the role of Aquaman in Justice League that things took a turn for the better. Now look at him! In lighter news, the same interview found him gushing about the color pink, so he’s obviously in a better place.
