Jason Momoa apologises for offensive ‘joke’ about raping women

He took to Instagram with a lengthy response.

As more and more women come forward with stories of their encounters with Harvey Weinstein, other men in the industry have been called out for their inappropriate behaviour or comments. Two of these men are Ben Affleck and Jason Momoa. Ben was reminded about the time he groped One Tree Hill actress Hilarie Burton while filming an interview. The video was shared again on social media during the week, forcing Ben to publicly apologised to Hilarie. For Jason, a clip of him during the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con panel resurfaced. The video shows Momoa joking that he loved his role as Khal Drogo on the HBO series Game of Thrones because he got to "rape beautiful women". He says in the clip:

"But as far as sci-fi/fantasy, I love that genre. There's so many things you can do, like rip someone's tongue out of their throat and get away with it... rape a beautiful woman, you know?"

After the clip went viral, Jason responded by releasing a lengthy apology on Instagram. He said:

"I awoke in Australia to the justified reactions by many people to a distasteful joke I made years ago in Hall H for which I am sorry. I am still severely disappointed in myself at the insensitivity of my remarks that day. I know my sincerest apology now won’t take away those hurtful words. Rape and sexual harassment can reach anyone and I have seen first hand its painful torment among members of my own family and friends. I made a truly tasteless comment. It is unacceptable and I sincerely apologise with a heavy heart for the words I said. All apologies, Jason."

 

I APOLOGISE Aloha j

A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies) on Oct 12, 2017 at 4:32pm PDT