Alexander Skarsgård
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From ASN:
Alex is interviewed in the latest (June 2016) issue of G/ST, an entertainment, culture and lifestyle magazine from The Philippine STAR.. The interview is online now and will be available soon at National Book Stores!
From gist.ph:
Forget the Tarzan you know
By Chonx Tibajia • June 12, 2016
The Tarzan of my childhood was a kid, like I was then. He was scrawny, awkward, and somewhat of an outcast — among his jungle family and humankind. While he was a true blue Disney hero that kids can relate to, I found it dif cult to nd anything in common with the guy. I didn’t know anyone who was raised by a bunch of apes — still don’t.
Enter the Tarzan of 2016, played by Alexander Skarsgård, someone I will only ever remember as the vampire Eric, the sexiest vampire ever invented. Maybe you can imagine the gasps and wide eyes from the GIST staff as we selected the appropriate Tarzan photo for our cover. It wasn’t easy. This is not the same Tarzan from our coloring books. He is brooding and dangerous and married to Margot Robbie.
The new film, The Legend of Tarzan, is directed by David Yates (of the last four Harry Potter films and the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find
Them), and judging from the trailer (which made us believers of Disney remakes yet again), it looks like it’s going to be dark with a sideorder of feelings.
“He’s Tarzan, you’re Jane. He’ll come for you,” says Captain Rom. That’s our childhood in one loaded line.
Here’s more from Skarsgård:
G/ST: When director David Yates first approached you about reimagining this iconic character, what went through your mind and what ultimately drew you to the project?
ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD: David is obviously an amazing lmmaker, so I was curious. Tarzan is a story that has been told so many times; what could be different about this one? And then I opened the script and you meet him in London where he’s having tea with the Prime Minister, and he’s in a suit and speaks with a perfect British accent. It wasn’t the Tarzan you would expect to meet, which I thought was interesting. It was a character who has left the jungle behind and doesn’t think he’ll ever go back. He’s been living in England for almost a decade as John Clayton III. So I thought it was a really smart take on this very famous story. It’s almost the opposite of the novel or most of the previous adaptations, which are about taming the beast … this is about releasing the beast. He’s afraid of himself, in a way, and it’s not until he goes back to the Congo that the layers slowly come off and he transforms from this sophisticated British Lord to a more primal state, from being John Clayton to becoming Tarzan. It was incredibly fun to explore that journey.
It’s an interesting dichotomy that I think is timeless and universal because we, as human beings, all struggle with that. We’re in a big city; we function somewhat successfully next to strangers, but, at the same time, we’re animals. It’s quite fascinating. I mean, even though the novel was written a hundred years ago, it doesn’t feel dated at all. I read it in 2015 and was mesmerized and blown away.
G/ST: One of the most fascinating aspects of Tarzan is the concept of growing up in the wild, being raised by apes, and the kind of spiritual connection he has with nature. How did you find your way into that mindset as an actor?
Alex: I started out by getting a whole bunch of documentaries about apes and watching them because even though the story’s told 10 years after he’s already left the jungle, he sees his family again when he goes back. There are also flashbacks of him growing up among apes. Animals are obviously a very important aspect of the movie, so it was important to me to study how they communicate, how they socialize. I had an amazing opportunity to spend some time with gorillas at the Aspinall Foundation in Kent, England. And even here in California, I was able to go out and hang out with some big cats — lions, tigers and panthers. It was incredible. We don’t have any wild animals in the film — they’re all animated — but I knew it was important to do that research so that I would have that in the back of my head.
G/ST: Can you talk a little about working with Margot Robbie to build this powerful bond between your characters, and what it means to them as they take this journey together?
Alex: When you first meet them, they’ve been living in England for a long time; they’ve lost a child; they’re not happy there. And I think Jane acknowledges that in a way that John doesn’t because when this opportunity presents itself to return to Africa, she’s eager to go. She spent her childhood there as well — she grew up in the Kuba Village — so she’s excited about it. He’s scared. He doesn’t want to go back. He’s afraid of who he was, afraid of that more animalistic side of his personality. But she convinces him to do this, and they go back, and almost immediately get separated.
Christoph (Waltz)’s character, Rom, takes Jane captive, and John and George, Sam’s character, go after them through the jungle. But she’s not a damsel in distress, like, ‘Go on, do the strong man thing and come save me.’ He needs to get to her because he’s very vulnerable without her. Jane anchors him in so many ways. Their relationship, and how they find their way back to each other, really drives the story, so it was important to find that dynamic.
G/ST: This film has such an amazing cast. What was it like for you as an actor to work alongside iconic actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and Djimon Hounsou?
Alex: I don’t even know where to begin. It’s just such a treat to work with actors who are not only so incredibly talented, but just decent human beings and incredibly generous. It’s not about them; it’s about the movie and collaborating and doing what’s best for this scene or this moment. It was incredible.
Sam is so much fun. No ego at all, just super chill, super fun, really hard-working, but very humble. It’s just so easy because he’s incredible. And the nuances in every single take are different, so you just have to try to be open to that and respond and you’re going to get a lot of good stuff.
G/ST: Can you talk about the process you went through to attain the physical presence of this character?
Alex: It was important to look like someone who was raised in the jungle — that’s his natural habitat. You want to feel like when he moves through the jungle he can do it blindfolded, and his physicality was a big part of that. I had to be agile and flexible, and getting there was tough. We prepped for about four months and then, obviously, I had to train throughout the shoot. So it was about nine months total. It was quite all-consuming; I had to say goodbye to friends and family for quite a while because it was very, very intense — the diet and the training. All my energy went into this, so if I ever had a day off I just spent it passed out on the couch. I’m not complaining because it was an incredible adventure, but I had to give every last bit of energy I had to this.
We had Wayne McGregor, who’s the greatest choreographer in the world, with us during prep, and every day of the shoot. To work with him for an hour is a treat, but to have him for that long was incredible. Wayne is used to working with the best ballet dancers in the world, and then he got me, so that was quite a challenge for him because I can’t even touch my toes (Laughs). We worked a little bit on Pilates and yoga and stuff like that so I could move more freely.
I can’t take credit for some of the crazy vine-swinging and stuff. I did a little bit of that, but we had this incredible trapeze artist there, so I would just jump off the branch and do a little bit of it and then I’d be in my trailer drinking tea while he did like all the crazy stuff. Then I’d come out and I’d do the perfect landing (Laughs).
G/ST: What do you hope people come away with when they see this movie?
Alex: Obviously, it’s a big, fun action movie, but it also has quite an interesting backdrop. It’s the Congo during King Leopold’s reign, so it touches on some quite serious subjects in terms of slavery and how they treated the land and the animals, and what they did to the native people. It was a genocide. They estimate that 20 million people died. It’s this very subtle undertone of the movie that you experience through John’s eyes when he returns to this land where he grew up.
***
Slated for release across the Philippines on June 30, The Legend of Tarzan will be distributed in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Source: Article: gist.ph
http://gist.ph/forget-tarzan-know/
Cover: gistph instagram
Alex is interviewed in the latest (June 2016) issue of G/ST, an entertainment, culture and lifestyle magazine from The Philippine STAR.. The interview is online now and will be available soon at National Book Stores!
From gist.ph:
Forget the Tarzan you know
By Chonx Tibajia • June 12, 2016
The Tarzan of my childhood was a kid, like I was then. He was scrawny, awkward, and somewhat of an outcast — among his jungle family and humankind. While he was a true blue Disney hero that kids can relate to, I found it dif cult to nd anything in common with the guy. I didn’t know anyone who was raised by a bunch of apes — still don’t.
Enter the Tarzan of 2016, played by Alexander Skarsgård, someone I will only ever remember as the vampire Eric, the sexiest vampire ever invented. Maybe you can imagine the gasps and wide eyes from the GIST staff as we selected the appropriate Tarzan photo for our cover. It wasn’t easy. This is not the same Tarzan from our coloring books. He is brooding and dangerous and married to Margot Robbie.
The new film, The Legend of Tarzan, is directed by David Yates (of the last four Harry Potter films and the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find
Them), and judging from the trailer (which made us believers of Disney remakes yet again), it looks like it’s going to be dark with a sideorder of feelings.
“He’s Tarzan, you’re Jane. He’ll come for you,” says Captain Rom. That’s our childhood in one loaded line.
Here’s more from Skarsgård:
G/ST: When director David Yates first approached you about reimagining this iconic character, what went through your mind and what ultimately drew you to the project?
ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD: David is obviously an amazing lmmaker, so I was curious. Tarzan is a story that has been told so many times; what could be different about this one? And then I opened the script and you meet him in London where he’s having tea with the Prime Minister, and he’s in a suit and speaks with a perfect British accent. It wasn’t the Tarzan you would expect to meet, which I thought was interesting. It was a character who has left the jungle behind and doesn’t think he’ll ever go back. He’s been living in England for almost a decade as John Clayton III. So I thought it was a really smart take on this very famous story. It’s almost the opposite of the novel or most of the previous adaptations, which are about taming the beast … this is about releasing the beast. He’s afraid of himself, in a way, and it’s not until he goes back to the Congo that the layers slowly come off and he transforms from this sophisticated British Lord to a more primal state, from being John Clayton to becoming Tarzan. It was incredibly fun to explore that journey.
It’s an interesting dichotomy that I think is timeless and universal because we, as human beings, all struggle with that. We’re in a big city; we function somewhat successfully next to strangers, but, at the same time, we’re animals. It’s quite fascinating. I mean, even though the novel was written a hundred years ago, it doesn’t feel dated at all. I read it in 2015 and was mesmerized and blown away.
G/ST: One of the most fascinating aspects of Tarzan is the concept of growing up in the wild, being raised by apes, and the kind of spiritual connection he has with nature. How did you find your way into that mindset as an actor?
Alex: I started out by getting a whole bunch of documentaries about apes and watching them because even though the story’s told 10 years after he’s already left the jungle, he sees his family again when he goes back. There are also flashbacks of him growing up among apes. Animals are obviously a very important aspect of the movie, so it was important to me to study how they communicate, how they socialize. I had an amazing opportunity to spend some time with gorillas at the Aspinall Foundation in Kent, England. And even here in California, I was able to go out and hang out with some big cats — lions, tigers and panthers. It was incredible. We don’t have any wild animals in the film — they’re all animated — but I knew it was important to do that research so that I would have that in the back of my head.
G/ST: Can you talk a little about working with Margot Robbie to build this powerful bond between your characters, and what it means to them as they take this journey together?
Alex: When you first meet them, they’ve been living in England for a long time; they’ve lost a child; they’re not happy there. And I think Jane acknowledges that in a way that John doesn’t because when this opportunity presents itself to return to Africa, she’s eager to go. She spent her childhood there as well — she grew up in the Kuba Village — so she’s excited about it. He’s scared. He doesn’t want to go back. He’s afraid of who he was, afraid of that more animalistic side of his personality. But she convinces him to do this, and they go back, and almost immediately get separated.
Christoph (Waltz)’s character, Rom, takes Jane captive, and John and George, Sam’s character, go after them through the jungle. But she’s not a damsel in distress, like, ‘Go on, do the strong man thing and come save me.’ He needs to get to her because he’s very vulnerable without her. Jane anchors him in so many ways. Their relationship, and how they find their way back to each other, really drives the story, so it was important to find that dynamic.
G/ST: This film has such an amazing cast. What was it like for you as an actor to work alongside iconic actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and Djimon Hounsou?
Alex: I don’t even know where to begin. It’s just such a treat to work with actors who are not only so incredibly talented, but just decent human beings and incredibly generous. It’s not about them; it’s about the movie and collaborating and doing what’s best for this scene or this moment. It was incredible.
Sam is so much fun. No ego at all, just super chill, super fun, really hard-working, but very humble. It’s just so easy because he’s incredible. And the nuances in every single take are different, so you just have to try to be open to that and respond and you’re going to get a lot of good stuff.
G/ST: Can you talk about the process you went through to attain the physical presence of this character?
Alex: It was important to look like someone who was raised in the jungle — that’s his natural habitat. You want to feel like when he moves through the jungle he can do it blindfolded, and his physicality was a big part of that. I had to be agile and flexible, and getting there was tough. We prepped for about four months and then, obviously, I had to train throughout the shoot. So it was about nine months total. It was quite all-consuming; I had to say goodbye to friends and family for quite a while because it was very, very intense — the diet and the training. All my energy went into this, so if I ever had a day off I just spent it passed out on the couch. I’m not complaining because it was an incredible adventure, but I had to give every last bit of energy I had to this.
We had Wayne McGregor, who’s the greatest choreographer in the world, with us during prep, and every day of the shoot. To work with him for an hour is a treat, but to have him for that long was incredible. Wayne is used to working with the best ballet dancers in the world, and then he got me, so that was quite a challenge for him because I can’t even touch my toes (Laughs). We worked a little bit on Pilates and yoga and stuff like that so I could move more freely.
I can’t take credit for some of the crazy vine-swinging and stuff. I did a little bit of that, but we had this incredible trapeze artist there, so I would just jump off the branch and do a little bit of it and then I’d be in my trailer drinking tea while he did like all the crazy stuff. Then I’d come out and I’d do the perfect landing (Laughs).
G/ST: What do you hope people come away with when they see this movie?
Alex: Obviously, it’s a big, fun action movie, but it also has quite an interesting backdrop. It’s the Congo during King Leopold’s reign, so it touches on some quite serious subjects in terms of slavery and how they treated the land and the animals, and what they did to the native people. It was a genocide. They estimate that 20 million people died. It’s this very subtle undertone of the movie that you experience through John’s eyes when he returns to this land where he grew up.
***
Slated for release across the Philippines on June 30, The Legend of Tarzan will be distributed in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
Source: Article: gist.ph
http://gist.ph/forget-tarzan-know/
Cover: gistph instagram
Maybe you're right Free
Alex will be a guest The Project on Tuesday.http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/the-project/guest-list
Maybe you're right Free
http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/the-project/guest-list
Yes!!! my favourite current affairs show. They have great panellists - very smart. Alex will need to have his answers be more fluid - these guys are good.
So do I win internet money for my intuitive guess or what???
That's tomorrow night here. I'll try and take some screen shots.
http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/the-project/guest-list
Last edited:
I tweeted The Project and they replied - they will be crossing to Alex in Sydney live tomorrow night. (The Project is filmed live in Melbourne).
So...Sydneysiders....here's your chance.
So...Sydneysiders....here's your chance.
Touchdown in Sydney
Source: Just Jared
He must have flown in Sunday night as the date has it at June 12, as it's Tuesday here now.
Source: Just Jared
He must have flown in Sunday night as the date has it at June 12, as it's Tuesday here now.
I've tweeted these guys this morning but as yet I haven't seen anything yet on the roster for these shows. The accounts to follow are:
The Today Show (Australia) https://twitter.com/TheTodayShow
Sunrise https://twitter.com/sunriseon7
Studio 10 https://twitter.com/Studio10au
The Morning Show https://twitter.com/morningshowon7
The Today Show (Australia) https://twitter.com/TheTodayShow
Sunrise https://twitter.com/sunriseon7
Studio 10 https://twitter.com/Studio10au
The Morning Show https://twitter.com/morningshowon7
Ok, so David Campbell who hosts the TodayExtra show from Sydney just tweeted me back.
David is going to be interviewing Alex. TodayExtra airs at 9am each weekday live from Sydney.
David's Twitter account is: https://twitter.com/DavidCampbell73
David is going to be interviewing Alex. TodayExtra airs at 9am each weekday live from Sydney.
David's Twitter account is: https://twitter.com/DavidCampbell73
The Fix will be interviewing Alex.
See a stripped down Alexander for yourself July 7 when Tarzan hits cinemas.
Source: http://thefix.nine.com.au/2016/06/14/09/00/alexander-skarsgard-on-set-of-tarzan
You can follow TheFix on Twitter https://twitter.com/thefixninemsn
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefixinsta/
See a stripped down Alexander for yourself July 7 when Tarzan hits cinemas.
Source: http://thefix.nine.com.au/2016/06/14/09/00/alexander-skarsgard-on-set-of-tarzan
You can follow TheFix on Twitter https://twitter.com/thefixninemsn
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefixinsta/
Free now that he is in your native land I hope you get a chance to see him thanks for the updates
No chance Mary
. Sydney is my hometown but I moved to Canberra a few years ago. And I'm working (but I do have notifications set up from Insta and Twitter and will try and get some screen shots of The Project tonight given the US will be asleep at 6.30pm Oz time).I've posted where he'll be on Twitter, Insta and Tumblr so hopefully some fans will take some photos with him.