Reported by Rick Henriques a.k.a. CromIsGod:

Many moons ago, I was reading a sports collectors magazine and saw an ad for a card show in Niagara Falls, NY featuring some former football greats. Being about 10 hours from Niagara Falls, I quickly flipped the page with vague recollection of the players appearing.

Sitting at work the next day, daydreaming, the image of the ad jarred my memory of a name I had seen before. After work I quickly went home and opened the magazine. When I got to the ad, there he was, highlighted by his legendary gridiron power, a man whose face I had seen hundreds of times on screen in "Conan the Barbarian". It was Ben Davidson, it was Rexor!! I was going, 10 hours or not. All the Gods in Valhalla could not stop me.

The day of the show I met Ben and he was great. He signed like 15 items for me related to Conan. He loved the fact that he was associated with the film and to this day remains a huge fan.

When Ben was doing a signing in New York recently, I decided to catch up with him again for this interview. Randy of TheArnoldFans.com asked me if I could do this on behalf of TAFs' Conan community... and I gladly accepted!

Rick Henriques: How were you originally contacted to play the part of Rexor? Ben Davidson: "Well, I got a call directly from John Milius and at first I thought it was a crank call and I had heard of Conan and Conan comic books so it was a great opportunity to be in the movie. There's a funny story behind that too. I was training for a competition on ABC called Superstars and John Milius insisted that I weight 275 lbs to get the part, but I didn't want to bulk up too much because then I couldn't bike or swim in the ABC competition. So John kept calling me and saying "How much ya weight now?" and every time he did I kept adding on a few pounds and finally he said I want you to fly down, so I did and he didn't have any scales around but he said "I want you bigger, bigger". Then I got to Spain and John brought out a scale, but it was in kilograms and I weighted about 120 on that so John thought that would be good enough but I did finally get to around 275 pounds."

RH: I had heard that there was an accident in the Orgy scene when you swung your ax at Arnold and it broke. What happened?

BD:
"Ahhhhhh you want the inside story (laughs).what had happened was the handle broke off right near the head of the ax and there was a jagged edge there and it went down and poked Arnold in the neck and was bleeding a bit. So they called for makeup and I'm thinking to myself "Uh oh I'm outta here, I'm jabbing a sharp stick in the stars neck is not a good way to stay in a movie", but they just put some makeup on it and I must say I was impressed with Arnold because just went on."

RH: Tell me a bit about working with Sven Ole Thorson.

BD:
"Ohhhh, what a great guy. He had these huge arms and man was he strong. I told him once that it was too bad he didn't grow up in the USA because he would have made big money as an offensive tackle in the NFL. We used to ride to the set everyday together in a car the film provided for us. One of the highlights for me being with Sven was wile we were in Spain there was this Spanish militant who was trying to take over the country who had some military troops that were loyal to him. One day he took over this parliament location and took some people hostage. Sven and I are sitting in a bar and of course this is all on live TV and the other Spanish patrons in the bar are all talking about what's going on. It was a big deal and a very tense situation. The announcer on the TV is babbling on so being that I know Spanish I turned to Sven and said "Uh oh" and he said "What, what's going on" so I said "they just announced on TV that all foreigners have to report to jail and they are going to hold us for a couple of days until they sort all this out". (Laughs) So Sven says ""No..No..I can't go to jail. I can't stay in a room like that". So the Spaniards are all looking at Sven and wondering what brought all this on and Sven's over here trying to figure out how to get out of the country quick so he doesn't have to go to jail." (laughs)


RH: Kind of a funny question. What was it like to just clap your hands and have a half naked woman jump into a snake pit for you?

BD:
(laughs) "Well it was a real feeling of power. What was strange about that is I got to do that because the fellow that was supposed to play that priest didn't show up. That was a little extra-added attraction for me because they just gave the part to me."

RH: One of the best lines in the movie is when you say "You" to Arnold. Was that something that was made up on the spot or was it in the script?

BD:
"I'm sure it was in the script. I liked that line. It was like me saying "We should have finished you while we had the chance. Now I have to kill you again"


RH: What was it like to work with John Milius?

BD:
"He was a great guy to work for. He had a great sense of humor and certainly understood the whole sword and sorcery thing and of course there was the thing with the blood. Normally, I guess, on a set with blood you would have like a ketchup bottle filled with the fake blood, but John had this five gallon garden sprayer filled with blood that he walked around with. One scene in the pit where Conan was fighting the various people John didn't think the set was quite bloody enough so we was going around with this sprayer and spraying all the walls and the Spanish extras where chuckling to each other saying "Look, this guy is nuts with all the blood."

(laughs) "I don't know who had to mix all that blood but they certainly had good job security on that movie."


RH: Do you remember any of these really bloody scenes not making it into the movie?

BD:
"I seem to remember the scene where Conan's mother got her head cut off was shot with this huge spurt of blood coming out of her skull, but that was cut out."

RH: Any of your scenes get cut?

BD:
"I don't think any got cut, maybe shortened a bit."

RH: Ever have any accidents on the set?

BD:
"No accidents but I think I must have fell off my horse about a dozen times. That would have been good for Rexor's macho persona, huh (laughs). It wasn't always my fault though. The first horse I had was really clumsy and kept tripping in the snow. The second horse I had I knew I was in for it with him because the trainers told his nickname was "Garbage" and in the end scene on the way to the final battle he kept passing the camera truck and we had to reshoot it a couple of times."

RH: What was the story about the blood from the final scene getting on the money in your boot?

BD:
Ahhhh, yes. Once again we have John Milius's proclivity to blood. They had these bladder bags filled with blood taped to the various places where Arnold was supposed to strike me with the sword and then they would gush the blood everywhere. I used to keep my money down in my boot and there was so much blood that it ran down my pants leg and got all over the money. I tried to wash it but it just turned pink, so when I used it I got a lot of stares. I don't know who they thought I was."

RH: That was a great dying scene and like you said "nice and bloody"

BD:
Actually a great part of that dying scene was when I fell over backward I knew where the camera was right behind me and they had some pads for me to fall on, so I figured I'm going to do this one time, stiffen up and just fall hard. I figured I'd give them a good dying scene. So I did it and I hit so hard because I was up a ways that the blood on my chest bounced up in front of the camera and John just went crazy hoping that the camera got it and the cameraman is yelling "I got it, I got it"






RH: Have you had any contact when any of the cast since the film wrapped?

BD:
"Yeah, I've seen Arnold a few times due to his work in the Inner City Games and I was invited to one of his birthday parties"

RH: Did you every keep anything from the movie? Any props?

BD:
"No, I didn't kept anything. They did offer to give us our swords and I think Arnold kept his, but I didn't think I could get on the plan with a sword tucked in my belt. I flew back with Arnold and he brought his, but I think he kept it in the cockpit with the pilots."

RH: When the movie came out there was some issues with animal rights activists saying that the horses were being abused on set. Did you hear anything or see anything like that?

BD:
"I was watching Johnny Carson one night and there was an activist at the time saying that like twelve horses died during the making of the movie. I was like, "That's news to me" because I was in every horse scene and never saw any horses die or get hurt. Those horses that fall, that's what they do, that's their niche in life. They are trained to do that. There were no horses killed at all. In fact the Spanish riders put on a demonstration at lunch one-day. All the horses galloped around in a circle and then someone would yell a command and they all would drop at the same time and lay on their sides, then that same person would yell another command and they would all get up and start galloping again. It was an amazing show of horsemanship."


RH: Do you think that when King Conan: Crown of Iron opens in LA for it's premiere you would want to go?

BD:
"Yeah I would love to be there.

RH: What about the possibility of making a cameo in the movie, like as Rexor's brother who has been lamenting all these years and plotting a way to kill Conan?

BD:
"Sure, sure I love to be in the movie. It would be a lot of fun to be there and once again bask in the glory of REXOR!!!!(laughs)

RH: Thanks Ben and how about one last "YOU!" for the road.

BD:
(laughs) "YOU!"

Rick Henriques (TheArnoldFans' reporter on all things "best in life")

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Rick Henriques (TAFs Conan reporter)