On the back of starring in such global successes as "Aquaman" and HBO's "Game of Thrones," Jason Momoa has become a household name in the entertainment world.
Rewind back a decade however, and the actor's lifestyle looked quite different; with Momoa recently revealing that there was a time when he wasn't able to financially justify taking a flight back home.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the actor took to Instagram to reflect upon the early days of being on the set of "Game of Thrones" (GOT), explaining how he spent his break with a small budget, in between filming scenes for the hit show.
"While filming GOT we had a lil break. We were to [sic] broke to fly home, so we rented a panel van, aka UHAUL, in Belfast and drove around beautiful, amazing Ireland, searching for the greatest pint of Guinness," the actor wrote in an Instagram post, which was accompanied with a picture of Momoa lying down and smiling in the back of a van, in Donegal.
"So many wonderful people and stories. I treasure those times. It was the simplest moments I remember the most. I still miss my family. Been a long road and I feel like I'm just getting started."
Momoa is just one of the latest actors to post tributes online about the HBO show, which concluded just over a week ago. While Momoa had starred in a number of shows and movies before "Game of Thrones" — including "Stargate Atlantis" — many see his role on the HBO show as a breakout moment for his career.
Since appearing as Khal Drogo, the formidable chieftain of a Dothraki tribe, alongside the "Mother of Dragons" actor Emilia Clarke, Momoa has gone onto star in a number of other projects.
One of his most famous roles is as Arthur Curry, A.K.A. Aquaman, in the DC Extended Universe franchise, with the "Aquaman" movie garnering almost $1.15 billion in the global box office, according to Box Office Mojo.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Momoa said that while "you get a lot of respect for Game of Thrones" and that he enjoyed playing the role of Khal Drogo, he did have trouble securing roles afterwards.
"It didn't help my career a lot because Khal Drogo doesn't even speak English," he added, highlighting how some people didn't realize the actor was an English speaker. On "Game of Thrones," Momoa would speak the fictional language of Dothraki.
"I was trying to get any role I could, and not having much luck," Momoa told the news outlet, explaining how it was "brutal" that he wasn't able to talk publicly about playing Aquaman for months, after he initially found out.Â
Yet, as Momoa notes in his Instagram post, the future is bright for the actor, with many projects currently in the pipeline. Recently, the actor has been starring in "Frontier" and is due to appear in the movie "Dune" and in "See", a new original Apple series.
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