Aquaman’s Jason Momoa Spills On The Time He Auditioned For Batman

In 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Jason Momoa had the honor of being the first big screen Arthur Curry, and with the new Aquaman movie heading our way on a wave of positive buzz, it seems that fans are pretty satisfied so far with the former Game of Thrones star’s take on the famed DC figure.

But while Momoa might have the right kind of presence and charisma to play the half-Atlantean hero, even he seems to realize that he probably wouldn’t do so well in the role of fellow Justice League member Bruce Wayne. So when the actor was asked to audition for Batman, Momoa quickly became skeptical, recalling in an interview with Jake Hamilton how he almost turned down the opportunity.

“Yeah I kind of visualized, because it was a generic kind of just general scene from the Christian Bale movie The Dark Knight and I just, it was a big casting call so I knew a lot of people were going to be doing it and I just felt like it was a booby trap and I just didn’t want to do it.”

Of course, we can see in retrospect that Warner had other motives in mind for this supposed Batman audition, with the part of Aquaman being kept under wraps at the time. And since Momoa himself knew that he wasn’t really in consideration to play the Caped Crusader, he decided to offer a knowingly inappropriate take on the role.

“So, we did it and I just pretended like Batman got killed in an alleyway and I picked it up and tried to play him like I was just down and out, poor, over it, just done wrong and he wasn’t afraid to punch even good people in the face.”

Momoa then went on to discuss the reckless mindset of his take on the Dark Knight, saying:

“And just go like unforgivable about certain things but also like flawed, like the kind of person who would jump off a cliff and figure out on the way down what we’re going to do.”

The actor recently recalled how he thought that Warner might’ve been eyeing him to play a villain, but when director Zack Snyder told him what part he’d really auditioned for, Momoa needed a moment to process it.

“So, they liked that and then I got called in about probably two to three weeks later and that’s when Zack laid it down and said ‘I want you to play Aquaman’, which was completely like ‘Excuse me?’”

Since then, the character of Arthur Curry has largely played second fiddle in the DCEU to the Caped Crusader and his big-name peers. But while Ben Affleck might well have already finished his surprisingly brief run as Batman, Momoa is finally getting the spotlight to himself with the upcoming Aquaman, and we’ll see how he fares with a flick all to himself when the film hits theaters on December 21st.