--- title: Game of Thrones' Jason Momoa on Khal Drogo Audition Interview description: Years after Khal Drogo was killed off of Game of Thrones, Jason Momoa's audition tape for the HBO drama is still making the Internet rounds. canonical: https://time.com/4641078/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-khal-drogo-audition/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-20T18:35:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:19.442Z og:title: Game of Thrones' Jason Momoa Talks Unique Khal Drogo Audition og:description: "The first time I did it, they were very scared" og:url: https://time.com/4641078/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-khal-drogo-audition/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game of Thrones' Jason Momoa Talks Unique Khal Drogo Audition twitter:description: "The first time I did it, they were very scared" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # _Game of Thrones_' Jason Momoa Tells the Origin Story Behind His Viral Audition: 'The First Time I Did It, They Were Very Scared'  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 20, 2017 6:35 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 20, 2017 6:35 PM UTC Years after [Khal Drogo](http://time.com/4464808/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-khal-drogo-return-instagram/) was killed off of [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/4429346/game-of-thrones-season-7-cast-news/), [Jason Momoa’s epic audition tape](http://time.com/3516894/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-audition-tape/) for the HBO fantasy drama is still making the Internet rounds. Of course, that’s because of the unusual way the _Justice League_ actor tried out for the part of the Dothraki warlord — by performing a Maori haka. During a recent interview with [_The New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/arts/jason-momoa-braves-new-frontiers.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur), Momoa revealed that his character’s lack of dialogue inspired the decision to do the traditional war dance. “On _Game of Thrones_, \[Drogo\] doesn’t say much. So how do you convey him? There’s nothing in the script,” he explained. “So I said: ‘I have this idea. Is it OK to do \[a dance\] before the audition?’ And they were like, ‘Oh, sure.’ Then I did the Haka. It was challenging to do the audition afterward — I couldn’t stop my heart from beating. The first time I did it, they were very scared. But then they wanted me to come back in so they could put it on tape.” Momoa went on to offer some insight into how he chose to portray the silent but deadly Drogo. “You have to walk around like you’re a king,” he said. “I’m not the king in my own house. I have to wash the dishes and take out the trash and say, ‘Yes, baby.’ I’m 6-foot-5, but I kind of walk around hunched over. I’m not like, ‘Hey, check me out.’ But Drogo had to have that posture.” Watch a clip of Momoa’s audition below. Read more at [NYTimes.com](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/arts/jason-momoa-braves-new-frontiers.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4641078/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-khal-drogo-audition/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4641078/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-khal-drogo-audition/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones' Jason Momoa Tells the Origin Story Behind His Viral Audition: 'The First Time I Did It, They Were Very Scared'","datePublished":"2017-01-20T18:35:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:19.442Z","description":"\"You have to walk around like you’re a king\"","url":"https://time.com/4641078/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-khal-drogo-audition/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","game of thrones","TV","Jason Momoa"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4641078/game-of-thrones-jason-momoa-khal-drogo-audition/","name":"Game of Thrones' Jason Momoa Tells the Origin Story Behind His Viral Audition: 'The First Time I Did It, They Were Very Scared'"}}]}] ```