Jason Momoa is not afraid to admit “Conan the Barbarian” was not his best work.
In an interview with British GQ, the 43-year-old actor had some harsh critiques for the 2011 resurrection of the beloved character, popularized in cinema by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1982.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of things that really sucked, and movies where it’s out of your hands,” Momoa confessed. “Conan was one of them. It’s one of the best experiences I had, and it [was] taken over and turned into a big pile of s—.”
The project was originally stalled at Warner Bros. before Lionsgate took up the film and bought the rights. Marcus Nispel was announced as director in 2009 and the future Aquaman was cast as the lead in 2010.
The movie had a $90 million budget and it received a 25% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was savagely rated by critics. Per Deadline, “Conan the Barbarian” only grossed about $48 million worldwide.
The box office failure wasn’t enough to keep Momoa down and the actor soon recovered after landing the part of Dothraki warlord Khal Drogo in HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones.”
Meanwhile, Momoa revealed that he’s ready to leave behind the brutish hyper-masculine roles he’s often been typecast in.
“It’s been hard because people always think I’m just this dude who plays [macho characters],” he says. “But I want to be moved, I want something new. Things are changing, and even the villain roles I’m playing now are eccentric.”
The actor likely referenced his role in the tenth installment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise where he plays a villain with purple and pink painted toenails and a lavender car.
“I’m a peacock at the highest level and I’m having the time of my life,” he laughed.
