Margot Robbie on Not Making Her 'Tarzan' Character a 'Damsel in Distress'

— -- Margot Robbie plays Jane to Alexander Skarsgard’s Tarzan in the new “The Legend of Tarzan” movie, but Robbie made sure Jane, Tarzan’s wife, was no damsel in distress.

“I definitely didn't want her to be a damsel in distress, and I just wanted her to be actively finding a way out of the situation,” Robbie, 25, said in an interview that aired today on “Good Morning America.” “I didn't want her to be sitting around waiting for someone to come save her but also to be, in the meantime, fixing the problem herself.”

The situation Robbie and Skarsgard’s characters must find their way out of in “The Legend of Tarzan” is that Skarsgard’s Tarzan is duped into returning back to Africa.

“She's not a terribly compliant character, and she is constantly fighting back,” Robbie said. “You know, she holds her ground. She's got strong opinions, and she voices them.”

While Skarsgard spends much of the film wearing very little, per his character, Robbie does not.

“It's a rarity to be wearing more clothes than your male costar so I was very grateful for that,” Robbie said. “She was wearing clothes, and yeah, they get ripped and torn as we're running through the jungle, but I'm not gonna suddenly pop out in a loin cloth for no apparent reason.”

Skarsgard underwent what he has described as a very strict training and exercise regimen to prepare for the role, while Robbie said she had almost the opposite experience.

“That was definitely taken into consideration with my weekend meal choices, that I could kind of eat whatever I wanted,” she said. “And the era that it takes place in, it's like, it wouldn't have been fashionable for Jane to be stick thin anyway. A bit of weight probably would have been more beautiful.”

"The Legend of Tarzan" is in theaters now.