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Last week we talked about the near death experience Jason Momoa had while surfing in Maui, that was so harrowing it convinced Jason to stop smoking. (For my part, I commiserated on being at the mercy of the waves as at the time I was happily wading in the Atlantic on a Jersey Shore vacation; now the only salt water I have contact with are my mournful tears at having to return to reality, but I digress…) Jason shared the story while appearing on the SmartLess podcast to promote his series Chief of War, which again, is so so good, are you watching yet?! Anyway, Jason packed a lot of good stories into his episode, including an extended proud papa interlude where he gushed about his son’s acting. Father and son are both on location in Budapest filming Dune: Part Three, and by his own account, Jason was on shpilkes watching 16-year-old Nakoa-Wolf shoot scenes opposite none other than Zendaya:

“He’s trained in martial arts his whole life,” Momoa said about his 16-year-old son Nakoa-Wolf Momoa, who goes by Wolf.

“He always wants to act. I’m like, you’re not acting. There’s no way — I’m not letting you act. He does, like, school plays in Topanga, right? That’s it.”

Momoa went on to explain that while making Hollywood films at his level is “not digging ditches,” it’s still “f—ing hard” and described rehearsing fight scenes over and over again in a 40-pound suit.

To skip ahead a bit, producer Cale Boyter got a look at the kid (whose mother, of course, is Lisa Bonet) and said, “He oughta be in pictures!” Next thing you know, he is cast as Leto II, one of the two twin children of Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya’s characters in Dune: Part Three. Suddenly, there’s a lot of change in the kid’s life.

“Bro,” Momoa explained, “the premiere of Chief of War, we flew to Hawaii. We did the premiere, I think, the 18th. We got on a plane that night. We landed on the 19th. My daughter’s 18th [birthday] was the 20th. We flew out the 21st. We landed in Budapest on the 22nd. He went to work on the 23rd. His first goddamn scene, I’m sitting there s—ting my pants.”

The proud papa continued, “He’s with Zendaya. I’m like, ‘He’s in it.’ And I’m like, ‘My baby, 16 years old.’ And he just killed it. I’m just crying. I was a f—ing wreck. I was so proud of him.”

Hayes asked if he ever said, “You were right, this is f—ing hard,” to which Momoa responded, “He’s like, ‘Pop, I have so much respect for you now.’”

He concluded by saying, “You want your kids to just be better than you. I’m like, ‘This motherf—er’s gonna be like… he’s gonna blow me away.’”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Having recently heard Jason heap praise on his own father, it’s nice to see this full-circle counterpart where he’s just as proud of his son (ok, probably a teeny bit more). And with Jason and Lisa Bonet as parents (not to mention Zoe Kravitz as a big sis), it’s not surprising that Nakoa-Wolf has acting talent. I find it curious, though, that Jason is somewhat changing his story about Nakoa-Wolf’s entree into the industry. A few weeks ago, Jason was claiming his son “isn’t a nepo baby!” and “he got the job all on his own!” Sure, Jan Jason. Now, Jason is going into more detail on Cale Boyter being the connection — a friend of Jason’s who produced A Minecraft Movie and all the Dune films. Turns out Jason helped his son with a stunt reel and audition tape and was there when they screen-tested Nakoa-Wolf. Again, with his lineage, I can easily believe that this kid has talent. And casting-wise, I totally buy him as the son of Zendaya and Timmy C. But the fact that the producer of Dune invited Nakoa-Wolf to audition because he knew him through the personal/professional relationship with his father, THAT is Nepo in a nutshell. I was surprised when Jason tried to downplay it before, and appreciate him being more forthright now.

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