Jason Momoa on filming 'The Red Road' and avoiding August in Atlanta
"The show burns. I've never read a script that burns through drama so quickly."
Sundance is doubling down on scripted TV after the success of last year's post-penal drama "Rectify." And like "Rectify," its newest series filmed in Georgia. But that's where the two diverge: "The Red Road," which begins its six-episode season tonight at 9, detonates dramatic ambiguity. Characters keep surprising themselves - and each other.
"The Red Road" shot around the metro area last fall, both in and outside the Perimeter (Cobb County). We recently spoke with Jason Momoa, formerly a warlord in "Game of Thrones" and a barbarian in Conan the Barbarian, about his new role as Phillip Kopus, an ex-con and Native American whose return to his hometown shatters the peace of a local law enforcement officer (Martin Henderson) and his family.
Spoiler: Momoa really loved shooting in Atlanta.
? ? ?
I watched the first two episodes and they're super intense. Watching Phillip, I kept being surprised.
When I first got Kopus - there's a piece of me as Jason that I've never gotten to do as an actor and it's perfect for me. When I read for Kopus, I mean obviously, myself, I've never been to prison and I've never, my tribe is just me and my mother. It's very interesting to play Kopus as someone who is an outcast; his tribe doesn't like him. I think throughout the whole piece, his roots kind of find him again. That was extremely interesting to me. Wanting to love, wanting to be part of a community. Obviously having that shell, it's very, very tough but you crack him open, he comes from a drug-dealing father. He's got a lot of problems. Myself, Jason, if I were to be raised that way, how would I have turned out? And if I went down the wrong path in life, which can happen, you can be sucker-punched by life, that's what's kind of interesting - these gray areas where any human can be put in these situations, what would you do? For Martin's character, Harold, how far would you go to protect your family? Where does that line lay?
Also, Tom Sizemore is your dad and Tamara Tunie is your mom, which I love.
When I first signed on, it was interesting because when I read it I was like, "Wow, who are they find as my father? Who's going to play my father and just berate me?" Right when they said Tom Sizemore, I was like, "Man that is perfect." I was very nervous on the first day, meeting Tom, because I really love his work. He was probably the easiest person to work with ever and so free. It was just very complementary, both of us worked really well together.
Tell me a bit about Phillip's relationship with Henderson's character, Harold, and his wife, Jean, throughout the rest of the season. I'm imagining it's going to have a few twists.
There's a lot of twists, I think it's constantly twisting, each episode, and you find out more about all of their back history and the skeletons that are in the closet and things that are surfacing again. I think that when I do come back into town, it kicks up a little bit of dust and you find out that Harold's little perfect wife, and what you think is a perfect wife, is soon going to be shattered. Maybe Kopus isn't as bad as he seems. When good guys do bad things and bad guys do good things, it's good drama.
What's that balance like? I think you are literally the tallest character on the show. But you're finding a balance between that tough shell and Phillip's inner life.
I mean, myself, Jason, obviously I am this big shell of a man but I was raised by all women, my grandmother, my mother. I have two children, I'm very soft. Both of my parents are artists. I was raised watching Gone with the Wind and Rear Window. Even though I'm perceived as one way, I was raised a totally different way. It's going to be really great, because a lot of people haven't seen that side. I spent the better part of the last year and a half directing my first movie. It wrote it with some friends and shot it ourselves. It's coming out in July, it's called Road to Paloma. But that's the thing people don't know - I write and direct. Obviously, I've been playing a lot of characters that have been very similar and Kopus is definitely someone that, I like the vulnerability.
Y'all were down here for three months?
Yeah, like three and a half months, man. I loved it down there. I was hanging out with Radio Birds, we shot a little video for them and they're fantastic. The coolest people man, I just had such a fantastic time. I'm really hoping the show gets picked up - I mean, I really want the show to go on but I really want to come back to Atlanta. I spent a lot of time with my daughter, she got into climbing the eagle at the Stone Summit. Oh, was it Buford Highway - amazing food, such good food down there, it's actually kind of scary. Gotta stay in shape down there because it's a lot of good food.
I was surprised at how wild and upstate the metro area looks in the show.
Yeah, I mean we're literally 40 minutes to an hour outside every day. I loved it. It's so beautiful around there. And I got to go through three seasons. That was fun. Definitely stay away in August. I grew up in Iowa, so it's very similar, the humidity thing.
Executive producer Bridget Carpenter said watching your performance was one of the most surprising and great things for her with this show. Are you kind of getting ready for the world to see another side of you?
You know, there's a lot of things people don't know about me. So I'm excited to do great work and get great work and tell stories and continue on in the arts in many different forms. Whether it's this or making my own movies or the next one. The show burns. I've never read a script that burns through drama so quickly. Those six episodes are on fire. Once you introduce everyone, it goes.
So season two - is it something you're thinking about, excited about, already?
Oh yeah. You never know. You do tons of pilots for different shows and some make it, some don't. I think we got a great show, so I'm really hoping we come back. I hope all of Atlanta watches it and then we'll come back.