‘It’s not the Tarzan you would expect’, says Alexander Skarsgård on his new role

Alexander Skarsgård sees the film as being about the duality within all of us: instinct versus intellect, as Tarzan wrestles with apes and his conscience.

Samuel L Jackson, left, and Alexander Skarsgård in The Legend of Tarzan. Jonathan Olley / Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP Photo

As introductions go, "Him Tarzan, her Jane" might be blunt – but it neatly sums up the roles played by Alexander Skarsgård and Margot Robbie in David Yates's fresh take on the lord of the jungle. The Legend of Tarzan is notable for headlining two of the hottest talents in Hollywood this summer.

Swedish-born Skarsgård, best known for his role in HBO vampire drama True Blood, has just seen his ascent to the A-list, confirmed with a Vanity Fair cover.

For 26-year-old Australian actress Robbie, the film is the first-half of a blockbuster double whammy – she will also be seen next week as Batman villain Harley Quinn in the hugely anticipated DC Comics supervillain team-up movie, Suicide Squad.

The co-stars first met in Los Angeles. “He cooked me spaghetti Bolognese – so I liked him immediately,” says Robbie, who comes across as refreshingly down-to-earth, as does the 39-year-old Skarsgård.

By the time they decamped to London, where the majority of the movie was shot, they were firm friends thanks to some interesting preparation that placed them in an imaginary tree house.

“It sounds silly, but it was so important,” she says. “We weren’t allowed to talk, but would walk through this routine – touching each other’s hair.”

Helping to break down physical barriers was all in aid of showing viewers the dynamic between Jane and Tarzan – or John Clayton III as he is also known.

“For the second-half of the movie, we’re separated,” says Skarsgård. “We have 20 minutes or so [in the beginning] to establish this relationship, and then the rest of the movie is these two lovers trying to get back together.

“If you don’t root for Jane and John to be together, if you don’t feel that connection, then we have a problem.”

At its heart, The Legend of Tarzan is an old-fashioned jungle romp that brings author Edgar Rice Burroughs's ape-man back to the big screen for the first time in years.

The last Tarzan movie of note – aside from Disney's 1999 animated version – was Hugh Hudson's 1984 film, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, starring French actor Christopher Lambert in the title role.

The best-known film Tarzan, however, remains former Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, who played the character in 12 black-and-white movies in the 1930s and 1940s. Skarsgård was intrigued by the prospect of Yates’s film. “The take on it felt quite fresh to me,” he says. “It’s not the origin story … it’s not the Tarzan you would expect.”

As the film opens, Clayton is married to Jane and living in Victorian England. He is a respectable lord of the manor, who has learnt to curb the animal instincts he developed while being reared by apes in the jungle following the death of his parents.

“In a way, you could say he starts out as John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, and he becomes Tarzan,” says Skarsgård.

Asked to return to the Congo on an assignment for the British government, Clayton’s primal urges reawaken when Jane is taken hostage by a Belgian soldier (Christoph Waltz), operating on behalf of the unscrupulous King Leopold II.

Yates is quick to point out that this Jane is a very modern version of the character, and not simply a helpless victim.

“We didn’t want a damsel in distress,” he says – and you suspect the “feisty and tomboyish” Robbie would never have signed up had that been the case.

Certainly, she seems a world apart from the forever-in-peril Jane played by Maureen O’Sullivan in six films with Weissmuller.

“I see Jane as being very emotionally strong, as Tarzan is very physically strong,” says Robbie. “I felt like it was very important that they were both strong in their own way, otherwise why would they be together?

“Her reactions are more in line with how I react to things – defiant, bossy.”

Training for the film took a Herculean effort for Skarsgård. For eight months, he was on a strict diet – six calorie-controlled meals a day, three hours apart, and no alcohol. He also undertook a strict programme of weights, yoga and Pilates to build up his core strength.

“I’ve never done anything like this, so that got me motivated and it made it easier,” he says. “Every morning, when I had to get up and go to the gym, I was intrigued [by this] transformation.”

He sees the film – which has grossed a respectable US$261 million (Dh958.6m) around the globe since its release in the United States at the start of this month – as being about the duality within all of us: instinct versus intellect, as Tarzan wrestles with apes and his conscience. “It’s a big adventure movie,” he says. “But if you don’t care about the character and the relationship, it doesn’t really matter how spectacular it looks.”

• The Legend of Tarzan is in cinemas now