The Life Aquatic

Once the laughing stock of the comics stable,AQUAMAN is now set to carry the DC extended universe into a new era. TF meets the cast and joins the director in the edit bay of a standalone adventure thats more fantasy film than superhero story.

- Matt Maytum

This was hell… none of it’s comfortable, that’s why it looks amazing.” growls Jason Momoa of his Atlantean armour costume from Aquaman. It’s on display in a room in The London Hotel, West Hollywood, and he’s giving Total Film a guided tour of the most chafing area. “If you look in here,” he says, tugging open the waistband with little regard for the mannequin’s modesty, “this just rubs everywhere on you. And then if you have [fake] tattoos on, the costume rubs everything off.”

It’s a truth, widely if not universally acknowledged, that actors are generally smaller in the flesh than they appear on screen. Momoa pretty much takes this concept and grinds it to dust in his Herculean palms: 6ft 4in and built like a Dothraki warrior, sporting that wild hair and bushy beard, even dressed casually in a khaki t-shirt, jeans and Birkenstock clogs, Momoa cuts an imposing presence. Or at least he would if he didn’t have such an eager, puppyish friendliness and charm. Every day is clearly an adventure, and he’s loving riding the Aquaman wave; it’s just days ahead of Aquaman’s footage debut at this July’s 2018 Comic-Con.

This current screen iteration of Aquaman is so closely tailored to Momoa’s own strengths, it’s hard to tell where he ends and Arthur Curry, heir to the throne of Atlantis, begins. “I think Aquaman definitely has a lot of me,” he says, bundling his hair up into a bun as he speaks. “I’m not that jaded, but he’s definitely ornery and playful and likes beer! He’s a bit of a smartass. We obviously have a lot of hair.”