When someone recreates an iconic role, one of the questions remains the same: What did the first guy think?
In the case of "Conan the Barbarian," the answer is decidedly positive.
"I was excited to find out that he actually watched it and liked it a lot," Jason Momoa tells NextMovie of Arnold Schwarzenegger's reaction. "He was proud of me and thought I did a good job."
The warm-fuzzy feeling, however, cannot be mutual. The "Game of Thrones" star has yet to watch the former Governator in action.
"I haven't seen it," he admits during San Diego Comic-Con. "I've never played a role that had already been played before and I really didn't feel like I would need to see Arnold's performance to help me with mine.
"When you get hired on a job, you want to take all the source material – there's tons of stories, the comic books and the paintings. You don't need anyone to tell you what that man's made of once you've looked at one of those Frank Frazetta paintings. I wanted to build my character from the ground up."
Die-hard fans gasping for air right now can rest easy – Momoa promises he's going to catch Arnie in action in the near future.
"I'm going to see it soon because everyone's castrating me for the whole thing," he says. "I've gotta go watch his movie. I just wanted to do mine first."
"Conan the Barbarian" arrives in theaters on Aug. 19.
