SKARSGÅRD AND ROBBIE HAVE FOOD FOR THOUGHT IN ‘TARZAN’
For the title role, dieting actor was at end of his rope
Jane tosses a BEVERLY HILLS scrap of chicken into Tarzan’s mouth.
“We’re re-enacting six months on set,” jokes Alexander Skarsgård, 39, who morphs into one of his childhood heroes in The Leg
end of Tarzan this weekend. Margot Robbie, 25, who plays Jane, laughs while eating a salad next to her co-star. “He would eat vicariously through me,” she says.
The pair put a new spin on an old story in the hands of director David Yates. In Legend of Tarzan (in theaters Friday), Tarzan and Jane are married, although the film flashes back so audiences can see their jungle meet-cute.
Tarzan (or John Clayton III as he’s now called) fights with Jane over a proposal to go back to Africa; she insists on coming, as does American George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson). It’s there they must intercept baddie Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) as he acts as an emissary for Belgium’s King Leopold II, who is enslaving the people of the Congo.
The Legend of Tarzan’s Jane is no damsel in distress, and it’s why Robbie signed on. “It was very evident that they were focusing on making her a strong female character,” says the Australian actress.
Skarsgård, who starred in smaller films such as What Maisie Knew and The Diary of A Teenage Girl while awaiting Tarzan’s shifting start date, acknowledges that he worried the movie would end up shelved.
So when the big-budget tentpole went into production, Skarsgård doubled down. To look the part, the Swedish-born actor spent three months consuming 7,000 calories a day and weightlifting, followed by two months of cardio and six small meals a day “to get rid of the body fat,” he says. “The goal wasn’t to get huge. I didn’t want him to look like a bodybuilder; I wanted every muscle to be there for a reason and have a purpose.” But “I just missed food,” Skarsgård says. “I would always finish my little box and be like, ‘OK, three hours until my next meal.’ ”
It’s fun to watch Robbie, next seen in Suicide Squad (out Aug. 5), rib Skarsgård about his relentless diet. “It was such a long shoot. I could maybe diet for a role briefly, but I couldn’t sustain it,” says the star, who aimed to ditch alcohol for a “dry January” this year. “I got to Jan. 8th and I was like, ‘This has been the worst week of my life. I will never try something as stupid as this again.’ ”
But for Skarsgård, Tarzan was worth it.
“As a kid, I always saw Tarzan as a superhero,” he says, “... with no gadgets or gimmicks — there’s no mutation or cape.”
A bit of childhood wonder creeps into his voice. “I was like, ‘He’s got nothing! Just his brain and his fists! And he still can beat anyone!’ I love that.”