The Asian premiere of Aquaman brought director James Wan and stars Jason Momoa and Amber Heard to the Philippines for the first time. How they felt about the visit is a question answered by an ill-fated stage prop.
Pensive is not necessarily the first trait that comes to mind when thinking about the qualities of a man of Momoa’s physique or stature, but the 39-year-old wasn’t hesitant in the slightest to pick his moments during the fan event of Aquaman’s Asian premiere at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall, where people chanted his name and asked him to sign everything from action figures to bags of chips.
Then again, as he proved during his recent short stop to the country, presumptions about him are almost always off the mark.
Tattoos and a bar-fight scar on his left eyebrow may suggest that the Idaho native by way of Hawaii is a colorless brute with impenetrable bravado, but he is actually a natural comic who interacted with fans with wit and charm. He even delivered a well-received hosting job at Saturday Night Live the past weekend, where he mentioned in his opening monologue past plans of moving to New York to audition as a regular cast member of the famed late night variety show.
The 6’4”, 220 lbs. man of muscles who played Khal Drogo in the phenomenal TV series Game of Thrones may appear to be a full adult too mature to smile, only he still knows how to enjoy life with childish delight. During the “Blue Carpet” event in Manila, Momoa was visibly thrilled about the entire experience, running through the pathways and shouting and jumping together with the fans. Jason Momoa appeared to be as excited as a kid who is about to meet Jason Momoa.
“I have never received this much love in my life,” he said to the crowd while holding a golden trident. “I’m rarely awe-struck. Thank you so much. I love you. Enjoy the movie!”
Afterward, Momoa belted out the howl of a battle cry and raised his character’s iconic weapon to the air that electrified people. It was the queue of the program’s finale. Lights flash, speakers blare and the people turn wild.
Momoa, feeding off the energy, repeatedly slams the tip of the trident on the floor as he crunched his body and his hair flips with every pierce. Slam. Crunch. Flip. Slam. Crunch. Flip. Again and again, until the tri-tipped head of the most powerful weapon of the seven seas fall off.
“Manila, Manila, you win,” Momoa said in an Instagram story posted on his account, @prideofgypsies, shortly after the fan event, where he still appeared to be catching his breath from the high-energy public appearance. “You guys came out and loved the Hawaiian!”
Perhaps what contributed to Momoa’s emotional response, other than being a person who takes nothing for granted, was the overwhelming early success of Aquaman. Director James Wan mentioned during the press conference that the movie has already netted $107 million in China as of Tuesday. (Aquaman hit theaters on these parts on Wednesday, and is now showing nationwide from Warner Bros. Pictures)
The early figure is especially surprising given how the idea of making a standalone Aquaman film had long been ridiculed.
The character was introduced in the comics in 1941. But as big-time production studios picked up comic-book superheroes much younger than the King of Atlantis for movie adaptations, and to much acclaim, nobody dared to fish Aquaman out of the water. Who wanted to watch a superhero who talks to fish?
The superhero movie genre, however, from the filmmakers’ approach to the audience’s taste, has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade that even projects headlined by B-level characters and villains yield box-office success. Finally, the timing for an Aquaman movie had arrived. What it needed next were the right people.
James Wan made his name in the mainstream entertainment industry as a filmmaker with boundless imagination, which was in full display in his breakthrough bloodbath Saw series, the hit horror Conjuring movies and the big franchise installment Fast and Furious 7. Wan made the most out of the materials, even if the settings were basically limited to a room, a house and roads, respectively.
“But with Aquaman, the idea of being able to create a world? That’s what was really attractive to him,” the film’s co-producer Rob Cowan said in a statement. “And because it’s James, the action took on elements of horror, romance, the history and mythology of Atlantis…. It’s based on canon, but at the same time he was able to be completely original.”
Wan described the opportunity as a dream come true. He said both he and Momoa connect to the film’s central character on a personal level as people who come from two different worlds.
Aquaman, or Arthur Ash, is the product of a love that shouldn’t have been between humans and Atlanteans, the advanced race that resides in the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. Meanwhile, Wan is an Asian guy born in Malaysia who grew up in Australia, and Momoa is a Hawaiian who grew up in central America.
“Arthur is a human who is from two separate worlds and doesn’t quite feel he belongs to either one,” Wan said. “But what he discovers is he has the best of both worlds, leading him to embrace his identity. That’s something I understood as I got older, and I think that Jason feels that, as well.”
Adding to the perfect timing and timeliness of an Aquaman film in 2018 was the depth of hot topics that could be explored in the story, one of which was the environmental issue.
Orm (Patrick Wilson), the half-brother of Arthur who has his sights on Atlantean kingship, is keen on declaring war against the surface dwellers on account of polluting the oceans and killing its habitants. Wan said, “[One] cannot make an Aquaman movie and not touch on the environmental message of it all.”
Another topic is woman empowerment. Amber Heard plays the character of Mera, princess of the undersea kingdom Xebel, love interest of Arthur, and, more important, no damsel in distress.
“She’s a princess, but it’s just a title,” Heard said during the presscon. “She’s active, driven, strong, fierce, bad-ass, kick-ass, tough, intelligent warrior—a superhero in her own right.”
In the comics, Mera is often portrayed as stronger as Aquaman. Heard, a feminist, said the character is the kind of representation the entertainment industry needs more of, which is a depiction of women who are fuller, stronger and bolder.
“I love that I could be this woman now,” Heard added. “It’s one thing to play a kick-ass lady character, but to play it now in this day and age is incredibly important for me both as an actress and a person.”
Heard, like Momoa, posted to social media moments of her visit in Manila. One of the last ones before they left was the touring Aquaman team enjoying dinner over a live performance of an R&B singer performing the Boyz II Men classic “End of the Road.”
Jason Momoa could be seen on the other side of the long table, crooning his heart out, even if his career, and the film’s direction based on early success, points to the opposite direction of the song.
Image credits: Stephanie Tumampos