Jason Momoa wanted to make a splash while hosting “Saturday Night Live,” gushing about his love of the ocean during his opening monologue.
The 44-year-old actor started his intro with a shout-out to his mom in the audience, joking that she’s “still recovering from giving birth to me.”
“I’m so happy to be here. I love this place. I love life. I love waking up, washing my luxurious hair with a full body of shampoo,” he said as he shook his ponytail. “And I love playing ‘Aquaman’ because I love the ocean.”
Momoa went on to discuss his love of all things water, sharing that he wanted to be a marine biologist when he was younger. “Which makes sense because I’m built like a scientist,” he quipped.
The Hawaii-born, Iowa-raised actor said living in the Midwest posed a problem for him as far as his love for marine life. After watching the 1998 surf movie “In God’s Hands,” which is set in Hawaii, he decided to move back.
Momoa boasted about landing a role on the show “Baywatch Hawaii,” which sparked his career. “I call it the B-word, but I fell in love with acting,” he said.
He added: “I only stayed for a few seasons because you really don’t want to get stuck in the B-hole. And now I feel like my life has come full circle.”
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Momoa signed off his monologue by discussing his aluminum water bottle company Mananalu, which aims “to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles” and curb ocean pollution.
The “Aquaman” star joked that the Hawaiian translation of Mananalu is “Suck it, Dasani.”
Saturday was Momoa’s second time hosting the NBC sketch comedy. He first stepped up to the plate in December 2018.
Momoa referenced his time “on the island” in a sketch titled “Cast Away,” in which he returned from a life at sea and came to visit his ex-fiancée Elaine (Chloe Fineman) and her husband Dennis (Andrew Dismukes).
“The island changed me,” Momoa’s character Laird said as he discussed being on a deserted island for five years after his plane crashed. “The only thing that mattered was survival, the size of the fire I could build with my own hands (and) the primitive skills I could summon to hunt.”
Momoa’s Laird leaned into his physique for the skit and swept Elaine off her feet while Dennis tried to fight him off with a push-up contest.
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First appeared on www.usatoday.com