Margot Robbie has starred in several movies during the course of her career with a variety of co-stars. But she might not have expected the reaction that she ended up having working with veteran star Djimon Hounsou.
Margot Robbie’s initial reaction was to turn down ‘The Legend of Tarzan’
Robbie featured alongside True Blood alum Alexander Skarsgard for the 2016 live-action Legend of Tarzan film. Skarsgard played the titular character Tarzan whereas Robbie played his love interest Jane. But initially, she wasn’t too thrilled with the role she was offered.
“My immediate reaction was that I had no interest in playing a damsel in distress,” Robbie once said according to The Free Library. “But my team said, ‘No, read it. It’s a different take.’ So I read the script and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this will be amazing!’ I loved the story and its sense of adventure.”
Robbie ensured her character would meet her expectations through a lengthy conversation with Tarzan‘s filmmaker.
“I mean, it was something we spoke about–so, David Yates, the Director, and I, our initial conversations were very much on, like, okay, how do we make this Jane relatable to a contemporary audience? How do we make her feel a bit more real and someone I can connect to because I’m not going to sit there and just be like, ‘He’ll come for me. It’ll be great.’ It just seems stupid,” Robbie once told Sarah Scoop.
‘The Legend of Tarzan’ star Djimon Hounsou had Margot Robbie ‘bawling’
Legend of Tarzan featured an ensemble cast of acting heavyweights. Along with Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson and Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz helped round out the film. Which was another strong incentive for Robbie to give Tarzan a shot.
“For me, the chance to work with this cast was one of the most exciting things about this project. Oddly enough, I probably spent more time with Christoph than anyone else because Jane is Rom’s captive for much of the film and he was the perfect acting partner for those sorts of scenes,” she said.
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But out of all those icons, it was actor Djimon Hounsou that left Robbie floored. The Guardians of the Galaxy star rarely shared the screen with Robbie. But that didn’t stop Robbie from marveling at his acting from afar.
“I didn’t have any scenes with Djimon but he’s just a phenomenal actor and so strong in this role that when I saw the film, I was just bawling watching his performance. I thought, ‘My God, he’s on screen for just a short amount of time and he’s already got me in tears,’” she said.
Why Djimon Hounsou said he wanted to fight Alexander Skarsgard
Skarsgard sculpted an impressive physique in order to portray a believable Tarzan. His training regimen for the role was calculated and specific, as he didn’t want to simply bulk up for the role.
“It was much more than just eating chicken breast and lifting weights because, again, I didn’t want to get too big –animals don’t have muscles that don’t serve a purpose because it’s stupid in the wild because that means they need energy. And that means you have to hunt more. It’s all about efficiency in Mother Nature, obviously,” Skarsgard said.
Hounsou took notice of Skarsgard’s extreme transformation. The actor also had to get in peak shape in order to believably square off against Skarsgard’s Tarzan. Seeing the work his co-star put in for his body motivated the Shazam star to do the same.
“No, there’s a great amount of training that went into it by the time I got to London to see, and saw Alexander in that shape and training, and the nutritional dedication that he was going through, and it was absolutely powerful. It was very inspiring. Like, I want to fight him,” Hounsou once told Black Film.
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