Very large man Jason Momoa has been out and about promoting the so-close-you-can-taste-it Minecraft Movie recently, touting his role as Garrett 'The Garbage Man' Garrison in the picture with his winning smile, easy charisma, and borderline-Amish child-rearing philosophy. The star says he doesn't let his kids play videogames, despite his starring role in the upcoming flick.
"We don't have a TV," Momoa told Deadline on the red carpet recently. "My son doesn't even have a phone—he's 16 and doesn't have a phone. We're different, dude. Sorry, man." Which, honestly? Probably a pretty smart move as parenting goes. I don't envy the poor, doomed zoomers and gen alphas out there today growing up in the poison swamp of social media, AI slop, and sugar-sweet algorithmic brainrot. "[Smartphones] are new to the world," says Momoa. "Everyone was doing just fine. You and I didn't grow up with phones, no one told me what to do—I had to find it."
‘A Minecraft Movie’ star Jason Momoa on why he doesn’t let his kids play video games or have phones: “We’re different dude. I just want them to use their creativity in a different way” pic.twitter.com/8kLhP4UtTTMarch 31, 2025
I don't fault Momoa for wanting to keep his own kids out of all that, but I do find it quite funny to trumpet the philosophy on the red carpet for a film that will pretty much live or die depending on how many screen-obsessed tweens it can pull into movie theatres. Maybe he's trying a digital equivalent of making them smoke the whole pack.
Regardless, Momoa continues: "Because he's gonna be 18, he's gonna have a phone, he's gonna be out of the house and he can explore the world after that." Which does make it sound a bit like the Hollywood star is raising his teen son in some kind of replica of The Village, but that's probably just an issue of phrasing. "I just want them to use their creativity in a different way, so we do a lot of other things."
What other things? Momoa doesn't really say, although he does mention that he and the family "Watch movies together, and that's beautiful." Presumably not on a TV, though.
A Minecraft Movie releases properly tomorrow, April 4, but you might not want to rush and see it. Our Elie Gould scored the movie a respectable-but-not-remarkable 65% in their Minecraft Movie review, saying it "manages to show off the beautiful vistas, creative fun, and the wacky adventures that Minecraft is known for, but its story is seriously lacking."
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