'The Legend of Tarzan's' Alexander Skarsgard Talks Iconic Role

I grew up running on old fools you changed the bone structure do you swing on things inside like when you go upstairs oh I never take the stairs I usually take the curtains hi everybody I'm Peter Travers and welcome to popcorn you can see that we have popcorn here where we tell you what's happening at the movies and there's a summer movie now called The Legend of Tarzan which is about Tarzan it stars my buddy Alexander Skarsgard I was looking I was doing some research there's 200 plus movies that have Tarzan in the title yeah so what happens to you when you think I'm going to be 201 well I was I mean it was I knew that it was Warner Brothers great studio obviously uh I knew that David Yates was going to direct it incredible director I did it the last four head laughs where Potter films had done some amazing but stuff for British television on it that's very different very character-driven very intimate so I knew that this is a director that not only will he get the scope and you know make something big and fun but he genuinely cares about the psychology of it and that's the dream when you can find a big temple movie that has that kind of depth so I was quite curious to see how they would approach it and then I got the script and the movie opens with not the me Tarzan you Jane character it's quite different and quite surprising it opens with this very sophisticated man who is acclimated to life in London he's already been in London for almost a decade with his wife Jane played by Margot Robbie I thought Adam comes out and wrote the script that found such an interesting take on it and such an interesting way into the character because the first thing is I'm drinking tea with a prime minister and I thought it was brilliant and then the journey is him kind of going back to his roots he returns to the Congo where he was born and raised and then meets his ape family is reintroduced to his natural habitat the jungle well I love how Jane goes with you though - I love what's happening within the way that's played by Margot Robbie there's a sense of of a contemporary woman in what she's doing she convinced him to go he doesn't want to go because Christoph Waltz is there and that's never a good thing there's clean never gets going trouble I got in trouble really is yeah did he slap you around on set was it really difficult with him yeah is incredibly difficult I don't know if you met him I had such a difficult guy yeah the true gentleman yeah yeah not working with christophe's what a dream what an incredible actor on but ya know she convinces Jane convinces on John to return on John being you know John John John playing oh yeah little Greystoke from Tarzan on to go back she misses it as well they met in the jungle obviously and again this is told in flashbacks as them as teenagers how they met and how they fell in love on so she spent her dad was a professor and so she spent her teenage years in Africa with the the kuba people in their village and and she misses it as well so she wants to go back and and reluctantly John agrees and they go back and then very early on ones to get there they're separated on in Christoph his crystals character Rahm takes Jane and what we try to accomplish was the fact that they need each other it felt a bit too archaic had it been the damsel in distress or you know Tarzan saving Jane she used that word at one point in the movie yeah to be a dam in with when you have Margo you're not going to get that because you're so strong and tough and independent and it's just what qualities that you need in a modern Jane and it makes it like illogical more interesting if you can feel that he's lost without her and he needs her she's kind of his pillar in a way so what what did you have to do to prepare to do this you're in pretty good shape all the time I'm guessing unless you go on one of those binges back home and sweet I go on yes right okay yeah no it was on yeah it was a long process and about eight months of training in a very strict diet on social can't you eat uh well now eat whatever I want yeah I could see you fall in a bit yeah yeah right that's what for the movie it was on a very strict diet not no sugar no dairy products uh um no alcohol on six small meals a day so every three hours on the dot soy protein what is that yeah smoked fish a lot of fish uh chicken steak but you know fat was fine but I think they they definitely boy I wasn't even laughs fruit so no sugar at all on and it drove me a bit crazy well what was the last scene you shot for Tarzan then that would have been I'll definitely remember it because we were on a soundstage it was a little pickup shot and then they dropped this curtain they had behind me and they had on on a table and ice cold beer a pint of lager and a massive banoffee pie that's this English caramel banana cream pie nice I'm how are you oh my god it was free it are incredible read me yeah I was incredible Wow yes I'm pretty much ate the whole thing drank the beer got and then got on the oh I know I was just I thought I would no I don't care but I felt I felt amazing and my dad was shooting this miniseries called River in London at the time and he loves to cook so I went he was renting a house and I in East London's I went straight from said after wrap after eating this whole banoffee pie to my dad's house and spent four days on his couch just being fed you just I could pasta venue Ambani marrow can happen after drink wine huh what happens to you physically when you spend four days just I was on a high no I would I thought I would get physically sick you know being having like going eight months with no sugar no dairy nothing and then just it wasn't a nice creation I would just I went hard I like feed off of that up to Wagoner it sounds like it was delicious and I feel fine I felt great I bet you did yeah mmm I really did we were talking before the show started I talked about the scene of you with the lioness and how moving I thought that was Oh down on the ground and you're making this yeah nicely but that's not happening is it not only were no animals harmed during the making of The Legend of ptarth no animals were filled man we were there did you film now you're just playing with shadows what's happening on that scene was actually a 25 year old breakdancer from London a guy it was wearing a grey pajamas so we basically met on set shook hands and then went down on all fours and started like hustling hustling each other Hollywood yeah yeah in a in a way those moments there's another moment with where Jon meets an elephant that he's known since he was a little kid and there's this beautiful moment when the elephants come out it's at night and in John is with George Sam's character and these animal elephants come out and there's an emotional connection he's I go my old friend and he like they were more difficult to shoot than the fight sequences in a way because the fight sequences are very technical and choreographed and I fought stuntmen in in in body suits but the the emotional stuff was tough because it was basically a tennis ball on a c-stand and I had to pretend that this tennis ball was like an old beautiful elephant that I've known since I was a little child and so that was quite interesting when you were standing Oh my old friend my old friend the tentative oh yeah well I remember you yeah so this is new world because this new world I heard the only person that hurt you in any way was Margo yeah what is he doing yeah during the love scene she slapped you around yes a very traumatic experience so I I'm not sure I can talk talk but really it's just you really got yeah no David wanted David Yates art director wanted on when we shot the first love scene he was he wanted it to be primal he's like it's Tarzan and Jane having sex like these two iconic character and it has to be primal and wild and um she was kind of egging her on behind the camera she likes screaming at Margot claw him punch him beatin scratchin so I walked away with a few bruises and she had no problem doing that did she she almost hit me with this when she was here the longer just physically I was Australian in a best way yeah yeah you can't mess around no no definitely not she went for it at your peril yeah that not harmed by any of that did you look at ever had you already grown up seeing any Tarzan movies oh yeah I was a huge with your transcends Johnny Weissmuller mm-hmm introduced to me by my father who was uh he's the biggest Tarzan fan is he yeah stellen is just a man for Tarzan he grew up every Saturday he would go to the matinee in the local theatre in Sweden and watch the old Johnny Vice Miller movies mm-hmm so he was he was probably more excited about this when I when I got the job then I was did give you any tips on no I think I mean being an actor himself he was very aware of the fact that like I Johnny Vice was such an iconic Tarzan on that it's basically just don't try to mimic that and you you know stay away from all that but and find your own character and did you know discover find your Tarzan then you also have to say do I wear a loincloth yeah I don't know know where those decisions made really early in the proceedings this is how you're going to look yeah I mean it was very clear reading the script and knowing that the journey that the character is on that a loincloth wouldn't make sense on we wanted all the flashback stuff to him as a kid he's naked because before he's introduced to humans it wouldn't make sense for him that we're closed obviously the Apes aren't really saying put something like cover up like this is you know on when he returns to the jungle he is still in his like Victorian British Safari outfit and then very on slowly these layers come off and it's you know emotionally and and literally like layers come off when he's on this adventure with George Washington Sam's character in the jungle Tarzan so basically mean to him he's always saying can't you keep up you've got to do that was how I mean we had so much fun exploring that yeah and to get to play that weird friendship or let that friendship develop in a way where they they're stuck together and those are always the best you know buddy movies were there stuck together and they don't really like each other and the rubber toes are the wrong way and then slowly like they there's like this friendship bility and in finding that what sam was incredible so is it all happening the way you want it to happen if you had a career plan last time you were here we talked about you growing up in Sweden yeah having basically to come here and just learn this whole I mean I remember you first in the immortal road of Mekas in zoo and it was her it was to see you now in that part you don't look at that guy and say that's my Tarzan it's not no no it's not really you just blew up in a giant gasoline explosion yeah yeah I got to come back for the sequel you did but not one second I'm in it for one second play Adam in the Garden of Eden was a lot of fun to do that uh yeah I know that was my first job out here Zoolander and you keep mixing it up yeah I really admire and what you're doing I mean you make independent movie that is 1/100 of 1% of the budget a Legend of Tarzan yeah but especially when you did diary the teenage girl I thought that was risky and it paid off oh thank you yeah thanks so do you get a kick out of that at Bolling it up oh yeah letting them say this is the box you should be no and I mean that was such a little use such a nugget it's like it was incredible that whole experience on diary working with Mari who was and that was a project like the again the budget of Diary was a tenth of the catering budget on Tarzan probably it was tiny on and I was sent the script were given the script by my neighbor who knows Mari she's a first-time filmmaker hadn't done anything before and my neighbor basically said like I my friend wrote a script and I think is pretty good you want to read it it should be in it and I read it and I was blown away by it was such a beautiful story I met Mari and just fell in love with her and on this it's her passion she has all that she's incredible and yet you're playing this guy who's living with Kristen Wiig who's having an affair with her teenage daughter yeah hate you we could want to string but that made it interesting to me as well because I felt those are always the components like do you get excited about the script you meet the filmmaker is this a collaboration that you like oh I want to work like this with this person for not like this like this I guess uh for you know however went many months on and also the character obviously like is there something in it that you get excited about and with Monroe it was so interesting I felt like well it's so dark and you get so easy to hate this guy again he's 35 years old he has an affair with his girlfriend's daughter on and I thought well is there any way without condoning what he does can you make this interesting and can make this conflicted and where the audience wants to hate him but they maybe you can find a moment where their connection is real and beautiful and you can get the audience to almost root for them to be together and like that's when you make it you find it in you know you gets interesting alright well you know that we end in song now last time I begged you for something in Swedish and you did something that played during sporting events yeah Hammurabi games of course that's exactly what team my team do right what do you have in you now it is it okay to swear that's all it's a perfect it okay cuz insulated by you know this in England English yeah it's my favorite new band yeah nicest mmm-hmm it's you know Jenny Lewis's I do it's her new band yeah with three badass women in this bandits you should check them out it's there they've just started everybody you hear that it's an incredible band so give us that taste all right so this is how they end their show we're nice as wish you good luck that's it Wow I think Tarzan was singing that in the jungle and we just didn't know no that's what happened Alex thank you so thank you - Charles grows its pleasure with this you you

Channel: Popcorn with Peter Travers

Views: 77,128

Rating: 4.9384613 out of 5

Keywords: the, Legend, of, Tarzan, Alexander, Skarsgard, Popcorn, with, Peter, Travers, entertainment, movies

Id: Sj8Fwx1C-_w

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2016