Jason Momoa plays an 'ordinary guy' in Sweet Girl, out now

Jason Momoa doesn't get to play many ordinary guys. He's Aquaman. He's Khal Drogo. He's Conan the Barbarian. It's part of the reason why he wanted to be in Sweet Girl, a new action drama out on Netflix. In the film he's an ordinary Pittsburgh father named Ray Cooper who vows to get revenge against a pharmaceutical company he blames for his wife's death. As a father himself, it was a natural fit, and he got to hand pick the actress who'd play his on screen daughter: Instant Family's Isabela Merced.

Momoa and Merced spoke about the film and forming a bond on screen and off.

Jason, how do you go about choosing someone to play your daughter?

MOMOA: The whole cast was full of my first picks. But it was all about Isabela. We had some mutual friends and I just thought she would be perfect to play my daughter. I texted or something, probably sent out a bunch of love and aloha, and thank God she said yes because I don’t know who else I would have hired.

Do you remember your first meeting?

MOMOA: I was very excited to meet her. She was very reserved. And I was probably extremely nervous. But we loosened up. We went and looked at the car and I have all these pictures from the first time we met. She was just itty bitty. So I started calling her Oompa because she’s an Oompa Loompa. And so that became her nickname. But she warmed up. We hit it off. We’re very similar in our styles.

MERCED: I hadn’t watched a single episode of Game of Thrones. I still haven’t. And I’m so sorry.

MOMOA: Don’t watch it. That’s not how you want to see your father.

MERCED: I had seen him in Aquaman in some theater in my hometown and my little brother loves him and I loved him in that movie. And so obviously I knew who he was. But you never know. How people present themselves is usually different than how they are. But with him, he’s just the same. If anything, he’s more loving. Once you get close to him and he realizes you can trust him ... it’s the same way with me too. I wasn’t going to be lovey-dovey with everyone on the first day. He had to gain my trust too.

Is that easier to do when you’re shooting on location, like you did with this film in Pittsburgh?

MERCED: Yeah, you’re kind of isolated with those people. We would go out to dinner pretty much every other night. We would dance. We would eat sushi. We had a great time. I’m from Cleveland, there’s like a rivalry between (the cities), but I don’t really care, like, I don’t know, like leave that to the old folks. I love Pittsburgh, it literally looks like Cleveland.

MOMOA: (laughs) Leave it to the old folks.