LOS ANGELES: With her cut-glass cheekbones, porcelain skin and cascading flaxen locks, it is hard to imagine a better choice to play Tarzan’s love interest than Australian actress Margot Robbie.
But the 25-year-old, who appears as Jane in “The Legend of Tarzan,” the latest take on one of Hollywood’s most enduring colonial era adventure stories, is anything but a shrinking violet.
“I’ve never wanted to play the damsel in distress, and Jane is anything but,” said the actress, who rose to worldwide fame starring in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Robbie agreed early on with director David Yates that her take on Jane Porter, and later Lady Greystoke, in the 51st live-action Tarzan movie would be a feisty character, capable of fighting back.
In one memorable scene, Belgian ruler Leopold II’s dastardly henchman Leon Rom, played by Christoph Waltz, demands of a captured Jane that she scream to attract Tarzan’s attention, and instead she spits in his face.
It is a gesture of the kind of fiery insouciance common in the roles Robbie has picked, from her portrayal of the feisty Naomi Lapaglia in “The Wolf of Wall Street” to the villainous Harley Quinn in the much anticipated “Suicide Squad” from DC Comics.
The Queensland native is enjoying an unusual trajectory in an industry where many female actresses complain of the shallow roles they are offered.
But the 25-year-old, who appears as Jane in “The Legend of Tarzan,” the latest take on one of Hollywood’s most enduring colonial era adventure stories, is anything but a shrinking violet.
“I’ve never wanted to play the damsel in distress, and Jane is anything but,” said the actress, who rose to worldwide fame starring in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Robbie agreed early on with director David Yates that her take on Jane Porter, and later Lady Greystoke, in the 51st live-action Tarzan movie would be a feisty character, capable of fighting back.
In one memorable scene, Belgian ruler Leopold II’s dastardly henchman Leon Rom, played by Christoph Waltz, demands of a captured Jane that she scream to attract Tarzan’s attention, and instead she spits in his face.
It is a gesture of the kind of fiery insouciance common in the roles Robbie has picked, from her portrayal of the feisty Naomi Lapaglia in “The Wolf of Wall Street” to the villainous Harley Quinn in the much anticipated “Suicide Squad” from DC Comics.
The Queensland native is enjoying an unusual trajectory in an industry where many female actresses complain of the shallow roles they are offered.
