Promotional material for The Legend of Tarzan Photo: IC 

Margot Robbie (left) and Alexander Skarsgård attend a media event in Beijing on Friday. Photo: Wei Xi/GT

While previous Tarzan movies delved into how the "Lord of the Jungle" learned to control his savage nature, new film The Legend of Tarzan explores how he releases it, said Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård, who plays the titular role in the film, at a press conference in Beijing on Friday.
The Legend of Tarzan is one of the five or so imported films that have been allowed to reach cinemas in July, traditionally one of the mainland's "months of protection" during which only domestic films were permitted into theaters. 

Instead of following the original work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the new film approaches the character from a new angle. The story takes place about eight years since Tarzan left the jungles of the Congo and sees him now living in Victorian England with his wife Jane, played by Margot Robbie. Going by his birth name John Clayton III, Tarzan is still having a hard time adapting to upper class society. After an invitation brings the couple back to the Congo, they find themselves in danger from someone who seeks revenge on Tarzan. While saving himself and his wife, Tarzan gradually discovers who he truly is inside.  

Rising to popularity as the vampire Eric Northman in US drama True Blood, this is Skarsgård's first Hollywood blockbuster. The film is also a move towards more action-orientated roles for Robbie, who made a name for herself by acting alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street and will appear as Harley Quinn in the upcoming comic book action flick Suicide Squad.

With the film set for general release in the mainland on July 19, Skarsgård and the film's lead actress Robbie attended the film's mainland premiere and a fan meet on Thursday, before attending the press event on Friday.

Q: Is the story of Tarzan one of your childhood stories? Is there any difference between the one from the books and the film?

Skarsgård: My father has always been a huge fan of Tarzan. When I was a boy he introduced me to the old Tarzan movies. So that was my first memory of Tarzan: On the couch watching Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan with my father. So I was very, very excited when I heard about this project, but also surprised when I read it, because it's very different from Edgar Burroughs' novels and the old Johnny Weissmuller movies. I though it's quite surprising that you start with him in London drinking tea with a prime minister. That wasn't the Tarzan that I expected to meet. That was very refreshing and interesting when you can take an iconic character that people around the world love and you can still surprise them. That's always fun to me.

Q: The story of Tarzan takes place in the 1880s. Do you think such an old story can appeal to today's audiences?

Skarsgård: Absolutely. I still think it feels very relevant. Maybe even more so today than 140 years ago. The fact is we now live in these big cities on top of each other and people have a very romantic idea of returning to the wild and to a time when we were more connected with nature than we are today. And Tarzan (in the film) obviously represents that in many ways. He starts at London but is from nature, which is obviously a metaphor for being human beings. We are all from nature originally but we have kind of distanced ourselves from it. But deep down I think we all long to return to the wild.

Q: In the books, Tarzan can go toe-to-toe with all kinds of animals, but in the film he doesn't seem as strong as he loses a fight to an ape. What do you think of that?

Skarsgård: He left the jungle eight years ago. In London he doesn't have to fight, so he is a little rusty when he returns to the jungle. Plus, his heart is not in the fight. It (the ape) is a brother that he loves. It fights him because they are trespassing. But it's like a kind of practice. When he gets warmed up, he's definitely a better fighter towards the end of the movie than he is in the beginning.

Robbie: I think this version is a little more grounded in reality. They picked a specific point in history, a specific place and they incorporate real life characters. So there is a lot of historical accuracies there and therefore I think the entire story is a little more grounded in reality. Alex, tough as you are, you might not be able to win against an ape.

Q: You were a child star. However, for a time you rejected all your previous characters, only later returning to the film industry. Why is that?

Skarsgård: Puberty. I was 13. I wasn't famous but people recognized me sometimes and it made me very uncomfortable. Thirteen is a tough age for any kid. It's even more difficult if you are under the spotlight. I just wanted to be normal, like anyone else. So for eight years, I did not act. But then when I was 21, I missed acting. So I went to New York to theater school to see how I felt about it. I fell in love with it as soon as I got there and as soon as I started working with other actors and directors. I thought that collaboration was so magical. I also talked to my dad that maybe I could deal with the attention in a different way. Maybe instead of it making me paranoid or uncomfortable, I can embrace it and see it as something beautiful.

Q: You have often been viewed as the sexy blond girl in films, but this time the role of Jane is different from previous roles and even more different from the role of Harley Quinn. Can you explain a little bit about that?

Robbie: It was not a career goal to play the sexy blond girl. As for the difference between Jane and Harley Quinn, yeah, they are very, very different characters, strong in different ways. Harley Quinn's physically strong, Jane's more emotionally strong. I'm disappointed that after working with such brilliant directors, with writers who provided amazing scripts with wonderful characters... it's disappointing that sometimes all that can be depicted is to play the sexy wife because certainly for the actor playing it (the role), it's more than that.