Jason Momoa Says Having Best Year of His Career

Jason Momoa. (Getty Images)
Jason Momoa. (Getty Images)
TT

Jason Momoa Says Having Best Year of His Career

Jason Momoa. (Getty Images)
Jason Momoa. (Getty Images)

With several films yet to be released, and riding his success from the global hit "A Minecraft Movie," Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa says he is living a unique moment.

"It's probably my biggest year of my career," Momoa, 46, told AFP in an interview.

The actor said he's enjoying playing a range of roles, including Lobo, the intergalactic bounty hunter in the upcoming "Supergirl" film, which he described as "a childhood dream."

The star also appears in the film adaptation of "Street Fighter" and in the "Dune" trilogy, whose final installment hits theaters in December.

Momoa, who rose to fame thanks to "Game of Thrones," had the opportunity to work with Julian Schnabel, whom he described as his favorite director, in "In the Hand of Dante," which premieres this month on Netflix.

The actor is feeling like he's on a roll after playing a comedic role in last year's box office hit, "A Minecraft Movie," which he starred in with Jack Black.

"Minecraft really was huge, you know?" he said. "We didn't see that coming."

"I always wanted to do comedy. I mean, I've always done action my whole life," where playing superheroes felt "inevitable." But he enjoyed the opportunity to "make people laugh."

The actor said that comedic roles like those in "The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part," in which he voices a parody of Aquaman, a character he has portrayed in several productions, also allowed him to connect with a very special audience: his family.

"It was an epic moment because my kids got to see me do the looping (voiceover)," he said. While they don't seem to care much about his other roles, "when I'm involved with Lego, I'm an all-star."

The actor reconnected with the famous brick brand by debuting this Monday as "the Playmaster," the central figure in Lego's "Never Stop Playing" campaign to encourage families to dedicate more time to playing with their children, as social media and screens gain ground.

"I grew up with Lego. My children grew up with Lego," said Momoa, who sees the colorful pieces and their infinite possibilities as a tool for developing creativity and imagination.

"It's something that makes my heart smile," he said.

The unique role came with a bonus: "Being chosen by Lego to have your own little action figures... for them to make that was pretty special."



‘Tenzing’ Makes Sure We Know Who the Real Heroes of Everest Are

Genden Phuntsok and Tom Hiddleston in ‘Tenzing’ (Apple TV)
Genden Phuntsok and Tom Hiddleston in ‘Tenzing’ (Apple TV)
TT

‘Tenzing’ Makes Sure We Know Who the Real Heroes of Everest Are

Genden Phuntsok and Tom Hiddleston in ‘Tenzing’ (Apple TV)
Genden Phuntsok and Tom Hiddleston in ‘Tenzing’ (Apple TV)

New York: Jeanette Catsoulis

Stately and occasionally stirring, Jennifer Peedom’s movie “Tenzing” has an old-fashioned earnestness that’s gently disarming.

The film’s real-life subject is Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phuntsok), the Nepali-Indian mountaineer who, alongside Sir Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), became the first person reported to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953.

Neither a straight-up biopic nor a flat-out adventure yarn (its tone is too buttoned-up and British for that), “Tenzing” is instead a dramatic portrait of one man’s intense, all-consuming longing.

As a child in 1924 on the Tibetan Plateau, Tenzing watches, rapt, as the “men from away places” prepare to climb the mountain he knows only by its Tibetan name, Chomolungma.
One of those men is the English mountaineer George Mallory (Johnny Flynn), who would die on that ascent and whose brief exchange with Tenzing ignites a dream that swiftly becomes an obsession.

Almost three decades later, that drive will secure Tenzing, now an experienced climber, a spot as head Sherpa on Hillary’s expedition.

This places him in an awkward limbo: Neither a member of the British climbing team nor an ethnic Sherpa, he is viewed as an outsider by both groups.

His intelligence and preternatural climbing ability win him a promotion and respect; but Peedom, throughout her first narrative feature (after several mountain-climbing documentaries), remains keenly aware of the expedition’s class boundaries and not-so-subtle racism.

Shot in Nepal and New Zealand, “Tenzing” brings a chilly majesty to Everest’s treacherous slopes, with Stefan Duscio’s camera confirming Tenzing’s belief in the mountain’s mystical power. But a screenplay (by Luke Davies) that over-relies on confusing flashbacks and insists too often on Tenzing’s spiritual connection to Everest can cause other characters to fade to near-irrelevance. (Hillary, a polite New Zealander, is so reserved I forgot at times he was even there.) Harder to overlook is Willem Dafoe’s Colonel Hunt, the expedition leader and a man who clearly bathes in starch.

Whatever your feelings about Everest’s current ruination, there is no doubt that Tenzing — who, with Hillary, pioneered the mountain’s popular Southeast Ridge route, the site of an infamous 2014 disaster— deserves this spotlight.

And if it’s somewhat sentimental beam colors him as a little too saintly, Phuntsok’s performance is so modest and joyful that it’s difficult to mind. Whether trudging through a monsoon or hauling a grateful Hillary out of a nasty crevasse, this is a man who’s living his best life.

In any event, the film’s more worshipful tendencies are easily mitigated by its classical beauty and what can only be called its dignified — and occasionally breathtaking — handling of danger.

Tenzing may be on a spiritual quest, but the Sherpas harbor no illusions about their position or their militaristic overlords. Savvy and tart-tongued, they understand perfectly that their skills and discomfort are serving inflated foreign egos, men who “get to pretend they are heroes.”

“Tenzing,” in its quietly empathetic way, makes sure we know who the real heroes are.

The New York Times


'Godfather' Star Al Pacino to Receive Life Achievement Award from Actors' Guild

FILE - Honoree Al Pacino appears at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award event in Los Angeles on June 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
FILE - Honoree Al Pacino appears at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award event in Los Angeles on June 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
TT

'Godfather' Star Al Pacino to Receive Life Achievement Award from Actors' Guild

FILE - Honoree Al Pacino appears at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award event in Los Angeles on June 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
FILE - Honoree Al Pacino appears at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award event in Los Angeles on June 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

Celebrated actor Al Pacino will receive a lifetime achievement award for his career achievements and humanitarian work next year, the actors' union SAG-AFTRA has announced.

The American actor, best known for playing Michael Corleone in "The Godfather" films is the 62nd recipient of the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award. The union will present the award to him in Los Angeles at the 33rd Actor Awards on February 28, 2027 as part of a ceremony to be live-streamed on Netflix.

Pacino's recognition follows a career spanning more than six decades across film, television and stage. He is known for numerous memorable characters, including real-life police officer Frank Serpico ⁠in 1973's "Serpico," Miami ⁠mobster Tony Montana in 1983's "Scarface" and more recently Hollywood agent Marvin Schwarz in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood."

The award is presented annually to an actor who embodies the "finest ideals of the acting profession," according to the union.

"I wondered and wandered most of my life but have always felt at home with a script ⁠and my fellow actors," Pacino said in a statement from the actors' union.

"It's the work and the actors along the way that have been among the greatest joys of my life. It's an honor to be recognized by SAG-AFTRA in celebrating the journey," he added on Thursday.

Pacino won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in the 1992 film "Scent of a Woman," and has also won multiple Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe awards.

"Like so many actors, I have spent my life in awe and appreciation of the ⁠force of ⁠nature that is Al Pacino. When you watch him perform, you are witnessing a student and a master," SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin added in the statement.

Pacino also participated in the "America: A Tribute to Heroes" telethon following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in 2009 received the Arthritis Foundation's Jane Wyman Humanitarian Award for his charitable work.

The 86-year-old actor was born Alfredo James Pacino in New York. He struggled throughout the 1960s to find steady work before his eventual film breakthrough in 1972's "The Godfather."

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, influencers and other entertainment and media professionals.


Ailing UK Director Mike Leigh Wishes He Could Make ‘100 More Films’

English screenwriter and film director Mike Leigh attends the premiere of "Tender Loving Care" at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 in London, Britain, 15 October 2026. (EPA)
English screenwriter and film director Mike Leigh attends the premiere of "Tender Loving Care" at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 in London, Britain, 15 October 2026. (EPA)
TT

Ailing UK Director Mike Leigh Wishes He Could Make ‘100 More Films’

English screenwriter and film director Mike Leigh attends the premiere of "Tender Loving Care" at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 in London, Britain, 15 October 2026. (EPA)
English screenwriter and film director Mike Leigh attends the premiere of "Tender Loving Care" at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 in London, Britain, 15 October 2026. (EPA)

British filmmaker Mike Leigh told AFP Thursday he regretted he could not make "another hundred films" because of ill health, as he attended the London premiere of his prize-winning latest work.

Leigh, 83, has myositis, an autoimmune disease that affects the muscles, and now uses a walking stick.

"It's only because I have a medical condition that makes it difficult to do stuff, but otherwise I'd love to make a hundred more films," he told AFP on the red carpet at the London Film Festival ahead of the screening of his film, "Tender Loving Care".

"But it may not be possible, just from a practical point of view."

Leigh won the top prize last month at the San Sebastian film festival for the drama about social workers supporting vulnerable people, expected to be his last feature.

He won top prize at the Cannes film festival in 1996 for "Secrets and Lies" and at Venice in 2004 for "Vera Drake".

Actress Alice Bailey Johnson, one of the new film's stars, said she was "heartbroken" at the prospect that this could be the socially engaged filmmaker's final work.

"But if it is, then I can't express how honored I feel to be part of it," she told AFP before the screening.

"It's just a wonderful moment, and I will treasure it forever."