Robbie plays thoroughly modern 'Jane' in new 'Tarzan' film

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, whose first regular acting job was in Aussie soap "Neighbours," is enjoying an unusual trajectory in an industry where many female actresses complain of the shallow roles they are offered.    

- Positive response -

Studies consistently show that men outnumber women by up to three to one among speaking parts in feature films, with the few starring female roles often largely just foils for the male star.

"I think it's definitely improving. And I think people have finally recognized that half the ticket sales are coming from women," Robbie told AFP at a publicity event in Beverly Hills Sunday for "Tarzan," which hits theaters on July 1.

"And if they don't create the kind of roles that women are going to be able to relate to then they're not going to enjoy watching them as much.

"And if they don't enjoy watching them as much, they're not going to be able to make their money. I think they needed to recognize that and I think the industry has really responded in a postive way and people are really making an effort."

Robbie says she is still offered parts that strike her as problematic, but senses that producers and directors are keen to work with her to give the role more depth.

One notable feature of David Yates's take on Tarzan is that, for once, it is the male lead, Robbie's co-star Alexander Skarsgard, who spends much of the duration half-naked while Robbie was able to keep her clothes on.

Yates, who directed the final four "Harry Potter" films and is helming JK Rowling's forthcoming Potter spin-off "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," revealed he had turned down the studio's suggestion of "Superman" actor Henry Cavill for the role of "Tarzan," preferring Skarsgard's lower profile and physicality. 

- 'Not completely naked' -

"He was so motivated. I did ask him -- and I did this with Eddie Redmayne on 'Beasts' because they both had to work out -- 'can you send me photographs of yourself?' which seemed kind of not right.

"So every week, there would be photographs of Alex naked -- not completely naked -- and after about three or four weeks I just thought 'ok, that's fine, it's great."

"The Legend of Tarzan" picks up the King of the Jungle's story several years after his adventures in Africa with Jane.

Now a parliamentarian in London, Lord Greystoke is persuaded by Samuel L Jackson's former US civil war soldier George Washington Williams to go back to the Congo Free State to investigate reports that Leopold II is engaged in mass enslavement of the locals.

Jackson told AFP he visited Washington's grave in Blackpool, northwestern England, last year while shooting Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," which is due out in September.

"George is a pretty fascinating guy," said the 67-year-old Hollywood veteran.

"He fought in the civil war, underage, and had this darkness about him that took him to the Mexican-American War where he joined the cavalry and ended up killing a whole bunch of Indians, which disturbed him greatly."  

Jackson describes Tarzan as "an origin story more than anything else."

"You find out exactly why he is Tarzan of the Apes and what his relationship is to that ape community, how he was treated in it, who loved him, who bullied him," he said.