The story of Tarzan is one of the most retold stories in entertainment history. It would be difficult to find someone that has never heard of Tarzan and that didn’t picture a long- haired man dressed only in a loincloth swinging through the jungle as Jane held on. I am sure most of us could also do a pretty good chest beat and Tarzan jungle yell if put on the spot. This Friday, July 1st, The Legend of Tarzan opens and brings a new story to the classic tale. I got to sit down with Director David Yates, best known for directing the last four Harry Potter movies, Margot Robbie who plays Jane, and Tarzan himself, Alexander Skarsgard, to talk about why they wanted to make this movie and how they made these classic characters their own.
Alexander Skarsgard, who was not dressed in costume (aka shirtless) during this interview, spoke about how he was really excited when he heard that Warner Brothers was planning on making the Tarzan movie because he was a huge Tarzan fan growing up, and that he and his dad, actor Stellan Skarsgård, had seen and read hundreds of the Tarzan stories. Even though he had loved watching all the old Tarzan films he was concerned about what the approach would be and how it would be different. He did not want to do a remake of a movie that had already been made 100 times.
Skarsgard loved the way writer Adam Cozad opens the film, and considered the surprising introduction of the characters a brilliant take. Without giving away too much plot we first see Skarsgard & Robbie as a very sophisticated couple in Victorian London. Having left the jungles of Africa years ago, Tarzan, who is now known as John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke, with his beloved American wife, Jane, live a very refined and buttoned up life in a large gray stone castle. The duo returns to jungle, with Samuel L. Jackson as historical figure George Washington Wallace, to make sure that the African family they spent years with are not being captured and forced into slavery by the Belgians.
“I thought it was quite interesting to play…someone who's already acclimated to (civilization) and then is forced to go back and kind of reconnect with his roots and with his inner animal in a way. The trajectory of the story is the opposite of the old novels or the old movies,” said Skarsgard.
Margot Robbie and David Yates worked closely to create a Jane that would be relatable to a contemporary audience. They figured out how to make her feel a bit more real and came up with ways that Margot could connect to her too because she was not going to sit there and just be like, "He'll come for me. It'll be great." She is independent and very capable whether Tarzan and Jane were together or not. Jane never stopped fighting - she had no doubt that Tarzan would be fine, but she needed to get back to him, even if it meant putting herself in extreme danger.
It was also important for the audience to believe in Tarzan and Jane’s love. Robbie explains, ”at the heart of it, to me, it's very much a love story. And if you don't invest in that, then you don't really invest in the outcome of the movie. They both need each other, where Tarzan's physically strong, she's emotionally strong.” There was no “Me Tarzan, You Jane” … it was Tarzan and Jane, maybe even a bit more Jane and Tarzan.
“The fact that it was about two human beings that ultimately save each other” is what in-demand Director David Yates said convinced him to undertake this huge movie over all the other fun, big blow up stuff scripts he was reading. For him “it was about that relationship and making that resonate and feel moving and timeless, just finding chemistry between two actors that you really believe and that you want to stay with was a big piece of the puzzle.“
He knew that he wanted Alexander for Tarzan, he could just picture it in his head, and he liked (like many of us for different reasons) his shape. He was long and graceful like an animal. Yates also liked the fact that “Alex felt other. He's Swedish, which makes him immediately other but he lives in America. And he's trying to build a life for himself here. But, he doesn't feel that, he feels sort of other.” A bit like he is not quite totally at home wherever he is.
Yates didn’t have an actor in mind to play Jane so the studio suggested that he meet with Margot. He had envisioned their meeting to be very glamorous at Dorchester, but was pleasantly surprised when she turned up as “a real earthy tomboy.” She was just very unpretentious. And I thought, "Well, if we're going to have a Jane, let's have an unpretentious Jane who's earthy and gets on with it, knows her own mind, but she's beautiful as well." As soon as I met her, I thought, "The studio have got this right. I really like her. I think she'd be great."
Once Yates had the actors in place he was confident that they could create this new world for Tarzan, even if it meant traveling to places you could only get to by helicopter.
https://youtu.be/dLmKio67pVQ
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