There’s no mistaking Jason Momoa. Standing at 6ft 5ins, the man is built like a wall, which made him the perfect choice to play warlord Drogo in Game Of Thrones and meant there was no contest for the part of Conan The Barbarian in the new film.

But even savages suffer from man flu, and poor Momoa is sitting in a chair, blowing his nose and apologising for being ill.

The image of him sniffling jars ever so slightly given his imposing physical presence that’s accentuated today by a vest and waistcoat showing off bulging biceps and a warrior-like tattoo on his forearm.

Ever the professional, Momoa soldiers on and there’s no doubt the man is passionate about playing the legendary Conan.

At 32, the half-Hawaiian, half-Irish actor was only a tot when John Milius’s original film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was released. But Momoa wants to make it clear this remake is entirely different.

“It’s a total different style,” he says in a gravelly, baritone voice. “I’m not here to impress the Arnold fans because you’ve had that and I don’t want to regurgitate a movie that was done 30 years ago.”

In fact he only watched the 1982 original after he’d finished filming this 3D venture, a story that begins as a personal vendetta for Conan and turns into an epic, violent battle against hulking rivals, horrific monsters and a supernatural evil.

“I wanted to make sure I saw mine first. I just didn’t want there to be anything I might copy or use. I wanted my own fresh take on him,” says Momoa.

“As an actor, you want to bring your own paint to the canvas, that’s why they hire you.”

Instead, Momoa’s film returns to the story’s mythological roots as described by pulp fiction writer Robert E Howard in a series of short stories introduced in 1932, and the darkly sensual images created by comic book visionary Frank Frazetta.

Together these two men helped establish the burgeoning fantasy genre that was sword and sorcery.

“When you see those drawings, they just speak to you,” says Momoa. “I love [Frazetta’s] paintings, they’re so amazing; the way he captures movement, the raw power and that whole world. Our goal has been to capture the hero featured in those pictures.”

The idealised vision of unbridled masculinity, Conan is a tough, imperturbable anti-hero with no allegiances and the ability to deliver lines such as, “I live. I love. I slay. I am content” with conviction.