What was he thinking!?

I'm gonna go with "shoulda been shot". And not by a camera. Even having fun, an actor at some point has to go "OMG...what am I doing to my career!".

This has got to be some of the worst frelling dren ever aired. I couldn't even finish it.

I shut it off during the scene where the woodsman kicked the crap out of the princesses guard, then couldn't even take her crossbow away from her when she wasn't even pointing it at him.

Sheesh. What a wuss. Besides...her crossbow looked like the one I made in Jr. High shop class. They wouldn't let me make any bolts, though... sigh.

-Alcalde

Most of this seems to be right: In fact, there is an interview with JRD I read online a couple of weeks ago where he states that he HAD much fun making this movie (a point that seems to be rather important for him as I understand it), that he indeed LIKES to travel to different countries while acting and that he just had to start acting again after his serious injury in an accident he had while working on another movie. He points out that this part didn't demand too much physical action so he could do it in the recovering condition he was in that time while he had to reject other job offers because they included too much physical action.

Besides, although there is some pretty bad acting and other annoying stuff in the movie, I tend to agree with a review writer who states that this movie actually does not take itself too seriously and thus has kind of a satirical character. I watched the movie only because of JRD as I normally don't like bad fantasy films and I'm not so fond of mock movies pretending to be serious. Now, afterwards, I think JRD has done a good job: this King Fastrad is a major comic character of the movie and JRD does the acting excellently using his great comic talent. Sure, if you want to take it seriously, it is clearly exaggerated. But I really don't think JRD meant his King Fastrad interpretation to be taken that seriously. Perhaps you should rather compare it to his role as Grimshank in "Kröd Mändoon" which is a fantasy parody. Of course, I have to admit that I do presume to JRD's credit that he can't have meant his King Fastrad to be a serious villain.

So, in my opinion, the movie is only worth watching exactly for its comic elements. And if you like to have a very comical coward of a villain you can enjoy JRD's performance much.

As to career considerations: JRD is now in the second half of his sixties, the age normal people retire. So why should he bother himself with that kind of thoughts any more? He can either go on like this as long as he is able to work or stop immediately and enjoy other aspects of life. He seems to be quite prepared for this (my impression from one of the interviews).

And just because he was in "Lord of the Rings" he is not obliged to stick to Gimli for the rest of his life. THAT would indeed be a pity as I really like him much more in roles showing his actual face. "Lord of the Rings" is a great movie, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it was JRD's best role or the one most fitting.