Justin Timberlake has had a very successful career, almost from the very moment he started out on “The Mickey Mouse Club”; he managed to transition from boy-band star to movie star while hardly batting an eye, all while improving upon a solo music career that took off despite the critics’ predictions that he would fail.

Yet he hasn’t been without criticism over the years, and has certainly been in the business long enough to know that fans–and movie critics–are fickle beasts. Disappoint them once, and they will never forget it. A recent interview, however, shows that he can’t brush off the negative voices even after all his years in the business.

“So I find it ironic that I’m doing an interview with you about Man of the Year when I feel—literally—like a bunch of people just took a shit on my face,” he told GQ.

The interview came just after the release of an issue of Variety, in which his performance in the film “Runner Runner”–and the film itself–was skewered. Timberlake says he’s finally moved on, but the initial anger after reading the article lingered for a while.

“The movie didn’t do well at the box office, so I should quit?” he said of the reviews. “Hold on a second. If I was somebody else, you wouldn’t have said that. I have the number one album this week, and I shouldn’t have released it? Come on, man. You sound like a dickhead…. It just shocked me because, like, you’re trade magazines. None of your opinions count. And by the way, none of you can do it.”

In the Variety article, writer Ramin Setoodeh posits that Timberlake just wasn’t believable in the role of a Princeton graduate student.

“There are plenty of reasons for “Runner Runner’s” failure. The reviews were awful, and Timberlake (at 32!) is hardly plausible as a brainy Princeton graduate student trapped in an illegal Costa Rica gambling scheme. None of the film’s principals did much press for the movie released by 20th Century Fox, so they must not have had confidence in the finished product either…Timberlake, who is meant to anchor “Runner Runner,” struggles with most of the screenplay’s cheesy dialogue. In other scenes, he comes across like a lost celebrity hosting “Saturday Night Live” who can’t find the teleprompter.”

The actor/musician said he’s ready to move on, however.

“I don’t see myself as someone who’s ever going to be defined by one moment,” he said. “It’s on to the next.”

Image: Wikimedia Commons