It's been an exciting couple of years for Hollywood's newest go-to villain, Stephen Lang.

After enjoying a featured role as bad guy Col. Miles Quaritch in James Cameron's box-office blockbuster Avatar, Lang took on the role of Khalar Zym in Marcus Nispel's recent reboot of the Conan film franchise.

In a recent backstage interview at the Saturn Awards, where Lang took home a Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Avatar, Collider's Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub was able to talk to the affable tough guy actor about his sudden rise in fame as well as his work on Conan.

Check out Collider's video interview below. If you'd rather skip through the video to find the highlights, Collider offers this handy breakdown of the discussion.

  • He talks about what he won for
  • What has the last year been like for him
  • 0:45 – Has he heard about Avatar coming back out with deleted scenes put back in
  • 1:05 – Is he still anonymous
  • 1:30 – Conan talk. He talks about making the movie, all the stunts, the makeup and his character
  • 2:05 – Did he watch the previous Conan movies
  • 2:45 – How did Jason Momoa do as Conan
  • 3:10 – He says the movie starts with an action sequence and goes for two hours with a break “here and there”
  • 3:20 – Are they going to Comic-Con with Conan
  • 3:35 – What else does he have coming up. Talks about White Irish Drinkers and Christina

Right off the bat, it's interesting to hear that Lang's character is called Khalar Zym and not Singh, as has been previously reported. I'm not a student of the original Conan books by Robert E. Howard, so if that's a significant discrepancy, someone will have to let us know in the comments.

Lang's thoughts on the movie have certainly got me a bit more excited to see Conan. Not that I wasn't interested before, but it definitely wasn't a must-see for me. Now it's beginning to get there. Wall-to-wall action? Who can say no to that, right?

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I particularly like when Lang mentioned he used all of his "old man wiles and strength" to keep up with Jason Momoa. For fans who think that Momoa wasn't suitably ripped to play the part, it has to be good to hear a tough-guy like Lang report that Momoa really gave the performance his all - if you can forget Arnold Schwarzenegger for a second, and consider Momoa objectively. After seeing the first official photo of Momoa as Conan, and listening to Lang describe the action, I feel like he could really do a solid job.

My real concern is that despite his efforts, as well as those of Stephen Lang, Ron Perlman, and Rose McGowan, the movie won't live up to its hype because of a lame script or poor direction. As I remarked previously, the movie has the potential to veer into cheese-fest territory. For all of our sakes, I hope it doesn't.

What do you think of Lang's comments? Is Conan on your must-see list?

Source: Collider