Earlier this week, I got really freaked out at the Meryl Streep-Dustin Hoffman story in this month’s Vanity Fair. Not only was Hoffman a complete nightmare to work with back in those days, on Day 2 of Kramer v. Kramer he slapped Meryl Streep off-camera to get a certain reaction from her on-camera. While I’ve heard stories of actors doing and saying things to provoke reactions from costars, this instance just seemed like straight-up assault. So how do we feel about it in a modern film context, where a woman slaps a man? That’s what happened when Margot Robbie and Alex Skarsgard were filming a love scene for The Legend of Tarzan.
As the Jane to Skarsgård’s Tarzan, Robbie is anything but a passive wife who sits around, waiting to be saved — even when Christoph Waltz’s villainous Leon Rom tries to use her as bait for her husband. (In the Tarzan trailer, she refuses to scream “like a damsel” when Rom commands her to.)
“It was very important that we didn’t want it to feel archaic or dated, where it’s like, tough guy has to save the poor girl,” Skarsgård says. “You have to feel that she’s strong and independent, and when you cast Margot, you’ll definitely get that.”
In fact, Skarsgård got a firsthand look at that strength in one particularly steamy scene.
“They’re doing this love scene together, and I said [to Robbie], ‘Just slap Alex while you’re making love, just kind of give him a punch,’” director David Yates explains. “It was sort of an earthy, sensual moment of her enjoying sex with Alex, and the only bruise he picked up during the entire shoot was probably that punch from Margot. Which says a lot about her feistiness.”
I was going to say that I doubt Robbie hit Alex that hard, but apparently she hit him hard enough to leave a bruise. So, is this assault as well? Even if the director orders it within the context of a scene? I think it wouldn’t have been a big deal if the director told Alex that Margot was going to strike him at some point – it still would have been a “surprise” and Alex still would have had an authentic reaction to it, but he would have consented. This makes it sound like Yates just told Margot to hit him and Alex didn’t know about it.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Didn’t she also slap Leo during her Wolf of Wall Street audition?
You are probably reading way too into this. It was probably supposed to be playful and she hit him kind of hard and then they both laughed about it. The end. Alex has gushed about her numerous times.
I agree and the joke about “probably the only bruise he got was from Margot” sounds like an embellishment for a story/joke. Comparing this story to Kramer vs Kramer shows that context & details are the bulk of an experience.
“Enjoying sex with Alex” no she was acting and enjoying sex with TARZAN ffs sorry that just annoys me
Ha! Alex’s pose is hilarious.
@JenniferJustice Agreed! The first thing that got my attention. He looks like a seven-year old who has his picture taken by his mother after she explained to him how he should pose 🙂
I think he’s channeling Angelina.
It’s definitely different from emotionally tearing apart your cast mate, taunting them about your dead fiance. This seems to have been talked about between her, Yates & maybe even Skarsgard, it didn’t seem to be the same case with Streep/Hoffman
Exactly. It also seems like this was part of the direction from the script, whereas Hoffman just decided that it would be ‘realistic’ to randomly slap a costar without discussing it with anyone. And then mock her about fiance that had just died from a long battle with cancer.
I don’t think it’s the same thing. Men (even short turds like hoffman) genetically are stronger then woman. When a woman hits a man, especially a petite woman like robbie, even if a bruise is left, doesn’t even compare to a man clocking a woman.
I’m pretty sure if Ronda Rousey or Serena Williams hit a guy it would do some damage. Besides it doesn’t necessarily matter that one person is able to leave more physical damage on another when they hit. What matters most is that a person is being hit period. Just the act of hitting someone in angry ( whether it leave major damage) leaves psychological scars that can effect men and women equally when they are hit. Maybe you weren’t trying to imply this, but it sounds like you were saying it’s okay for men to be hit because women can leave them with a lot of bruise, which is messed up.
As for the situation with Margot it seems like she was just following orders. I wonder if the director was telling her this while the scene was happening so Alex was at least somewhat prepared for it or if she was told before they were to film the scene. But the director should have given Alex the heads up before ask Margot to do what he told her to do.
I’m sure Robbie can do damage if she wants to, but she’s definitely not Ronda Rousey or Serena Williams.
The same way I think Joseph Gordon Levitt can do some damage, but I’m pretty sure you can’t compare his slap to getting hit by Manny Pacquiao or Rafa Nadal…
earthy and sensual to haul off, mid sex, and slap or punch someone?
errrrr…???
that sounds unbelievably random.
That was the thing I paused at. WTF? I would rip his sh*t off if a guy just randomly slapped me. Anywhere.
But I don’t think this is anywhere in the same ballpark as the Streep/Hoffman incident.
Agree on both.
This makes me really uncomfortable. Play-punching someone IN THE FACE so hard it leaves a bruise? Not okay. Sorry, I just can’t. I really hope they are exaggerating what went down in order to create press.
Yeah I’m not really cool with this either.
I think it’s damaging to both sexes to treat women as so fragile and men so stoic that a slap or punch is inconsequential.
Now there isn’t the same social undertone to this as male-on-female violence, but You don’t just get to slap or hit people because they are men.
If it was agreed on beforehand, fine, different story.
I agree. I hope this was some marketing ploy. Hitting is bad, regardless of the gender of the victim. If Alexander was not informed this would happen, then it’s really wrong.
Just act. All these tricks are so contrived.
Yeah but if it were the other way around, “playful, animalistic, sensual Tarzan getting a bit wild and hitting her during sex” there’d be an outrage…
I don’t think she actually hurt him in any way, but not sure I’m ok with women randomly hitting men and getting away with it.
You don’t have any context to know that it was ‘random’ – it could have been rehearsed or planned. Or not. Who knows.
I don’t like the idea of actors having to put up with certain things to secure a job that noone reasonably should be expected to do but there’s not much other option for them. All the sex scenes and general nudity are pretty much obligatory these days. There’s always someone else who will do it.
Huh. Alex got Ghomeshi’d by Margot while they were working. Got it.
Oooh! Dang, Izzy!
I’m totally using that when I hear a story like this! (Not to make light of JG’s victims, mind you – I always thought him a creep!)
Entertainment Weekly just used that headline because of course they did, it’s clickbait, but I think Yates was clearly joking about the whole “he got a bruise” part and I think it’s pretty clear this is going to be something more playful and not something brutal.