he WB, continuing its recent trend of updating classic genre characters for new series (Smallville), will monkey around with Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories in a new dramatic series this fall. Tarzan, starring former Australian Calvin Klein underwear model Travis Fimmel as the titular ape-man, will be set, not in the rain forests of 19th-century Africa, but in the present-day urban jungle of New York City.
Fimmel plays John Clayton Jr., who has been captured in the wilds and taken against his will to New York by his powerful billionaire uncle Richard Clayton (former X-Files star Mitch Pileggi) for reasons as yet unclear. Richard's rival for John's affections is his nefarious newspaper publisher sister, Kathleen (former Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless).
In one escape attempt, young John encounters strong-willed NYPD detective Jane Porter (Sarah Wayne Callies) and her by-the-book partner, Sam Sullivan (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.). Jane instantly senses a connection with John and risks her well-ordered life to uncover his secret.
Tarzan swings onto The WB's fall schedule on Oct. 5 and will air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The cast took a moment recently to speak with Science Fiction Weekly about the show.
Travis Fimmel, was it a little weird being known before Tarzan for being an underwear model?
Fimmel: Yeah, definitely. It is a bit weird. But it was great. I mean, it gave me an opportunity to stay in the country and pursue acting, which I've always wanted to do, and I appreciate it for that. It's certainly not what I want to do, but I'm happy I did it. I wouldn't be here today if it didn't do it.
Is it something that you felt like you needed to overcome to have credibility?
Fimmel: Of course that's going to happen, but what can you do? If I didn't do modeling I wouldn't have been able to stay in the country. So I just have to prove in my acting. Hopefully I can, and I'll be taken seriously.
Do you think you had an advantage in getting the part because they'd already seen your picture?
Fimmel: Yeah, definitely. But I still had to audition with everybody else. There's plenty of people who look like Tarzan. Especially in this city. So yeah, I was just lucky. I've been with a great acting coach for two and a half years, and that finally paid off.
In the pilot, were the scenes in Africa shot in Hawaii?
Fimmel: No, they're in Africa, of course. [Laughs.] No, they're done in Canada, actually, in Stanley Park in [Vancouver].
It gets pretty cold up there.
Fimmel: Yeah, we're shooting in Toronto, and I'm not looking forward to the weather. But I'm looking forward to living somewhere else, somewhere different. But I'm a bit of a hot-weather boy, so we'll see how I cope.
They said the focus of the show is changing to be more about your character? [The show was originally called Tarzan and Jane.]
Fimmel: No, it's not focusing on me more. They dropped the name because everybody's going to say Tarzan anyway. But no, there's so many other stories: cop stories, stories about my uncle, my auntie, Jane and her partner. It's certainly not all about Tarzan.
They said Jane and Tarzan aren't going to get together immediately?
Fimmel: Yeah, that's another thing. ... They didn't want to make it like we're a couple already, or if we're going to be a couple. Otherwise, the show's about Tarzan and Jane.
Are you familiar with other portrayals of Tarzan?
Fimmel: I know the legend. Everybody knows the legend. And the difference between the legend and this is it's contemporary. And sort of, the legend's always been about Tarzan in the jungle, in his element, because he grew up there. Now he's out of his element, and it's the later years from that. Getting used to society. He hasn't been corrupted, so he's not used to it. All he's got to rely on is his primal instincts. In a way he's more evolved than most normal human beings.
A TV Guide interview with you suggested that you don't like to work out much for the role and that you drink a lot.
Fimmel: I don't enjoy working out. The drinking thing, they just say that because I'm Australian, I think. But no, I'm too busy working to drink. I work so much.
Are you working out a lot more than you thought you'd have to?
Fimmel: Yeah, they're trying to get me to. Man, it's killing me. But no, it's more movement stuff. Like how a primitive person would move. ... It's a lot of gymnastics sort of stuff. And just being agile, being flexible, which I'm so not flexible, and that sort of stuff, and just getting a level of fitness that'll help out and make it easier for me. And getting a level of fitness where I'm not going to pull my hamstring or hurt myself all the time because I'm not flexible.
Sarah Wayne Callies, how is your character different from the previous incarnations of Jane?
Callies: She's wearing more clothes. I'm not kidding. She's probably got more clothing on than if you stitched together every square inch of fabric every Jane has ever worn. She's probably got more. I think one of the ways to answer that question is that she's a woman alive in 2003, rather than Burroughs' original, which was published in 1914 and was about something that happened, I think, in 1881. And she's updated appropriately. Jane was a woman who was very forthright and sharp-minded for the time she was in. And she's retained that same relationship to the time she was in, even though it's now.
It sounds like you've read the stories.
Callies: I've read one. I didn't realize there were like 19. And I finished Tarzan of the Apes, the first one, a couple days ago, and I'm completely hooked. I didn't expect to be. There are some problems, obviously, with certain issues in that times are different than they were and racially the books are a little bit messed up, but in terms of the romance between the two, it's kind of becoming a guilty pleasure working through these books. I'm enjoying it.
Did you look at any of the film versions?
Callies: I didn't. And I didn't because I didn't want my performance to be based on what it looked or sounded like in another actress' interpretation, as different as they are. I just thought I'd build a character for a few episodes, and then sort of watch all the Johnny Weissmuller and the animated this and that and all that.
What do you think is missing in Jane's relationship with her fiance that makes her attracted to Tarzan?
Callies: I don't even know that there's anything missing in her relationship with Mike. I think she's on this path towards what she wants, and Mike is exactly what she wants. I think what happens when she meets Tarzan is she questions whether what she wants is really what's best for her and really what the sort of quieter inside parts of her want, rather than just her mind and her ambition.
So Mike is what she thinks she wants, not what she really wants?
Callies: Yes. And the relationship they have is one of two people who I think are verging on workaholics. The relationship between two people who are very, very driven and very passionate about their careers. And along comes this man who is focused largely on her and has all these swirling questions about his identity. But every time he's with her, he's actually with her. He's not thinking about something else. And he is so present in the present that I think there's something very compelling about that. And he's hot.
As an actress, does your feminism affect the roles you take? [Callies majored in feminist studies at Dartmouth.]
Callies: Absolutely. When I first heard about Jane I said, "No way. I'm not going to walk around in a leather bikini." And I said that, of course, with my head full of judgments that were wrong about the original Jane in the book and about this script. But I think I'm proud as a feminist to play Jane, because she's a woman who, I think, is an incredible role model, particularly for the demographic of women that are likely to be watching. She's very strong, very courageous. And not just in a sort of I'm-going-to-go-fight-the-world way, but in a way that reflects her willingness to examine honestly what her head and her heart are telling her. And if the answers that she gets from that examination change her life, then as terrified as she is of that change, I think she is courageous and that she at least takes the steps to negotiate it.
Can you talk about some of the physical challenges of the role?
Callies: A lot of running and jumping. I had to learn how to use a handgun, which was really interesting for me. I'd never handled a weapon before. A little weird holding in my hand something that could take someone's life. I started training a little bit in boxing. I started lifting weights, partly just to keep up with Travis' biceps. I've kind of got to hold my own here. But I've studied yoga for almost five years now, and that's something that's become very helpful. And I'm training in low-flying trapeze, which, while I'm not swinging from branches, with some of the wiring for the stunts, it's actually come in very useful for things like keeping my balance when my whole body weight is supported by one little harness.
You trained in low-flying trapeze before the show?
Callies: I did, as part of my master's program [at Denver's National Theatre Conservatory]. It was the cornerstone of our movement work in grad school. It's a lot of fun. A lot of fun.
Were there other options, like sword fighting?
Callies: We also studied stage combat. Everything from domestic violence to rapier and dagger to knife fighting and things like that, which hopefully, especially knife stuff, will come in handy. My father-in-law actually started teaching me knife throwing a few years ago, so I want to practice and get better at that and maybe bring it into the show, because I think it looks cool.
Can you talk about working with Travis?
Callies: Working with Travis is great. That's been a big question from a lot of people, I think. And I think the question maybe comes from a place of, he's a supermodel, does he have an attitude and can he act? And the answer is no, he doesn't have an attitude, and yes, he can act. I enjoy working with him. I think we have a good balance of basing what we do on the script and what's there and what's been rehearsed. And then also staying open to discoveries in the moment that are beautiful about television. Because whereas if you discover something like that in a rehearsal for theater, then you have 16 weeks to reproduce it every night. If you catch that moment on film, it's hard to beat how raw and human that is. And it's nice to be working with somebody who is open to those explorations, as well as the more scripted work.
Mitch Pileggi, you're coming back to series TV and another fantasy sort of thing.
Pileggi: It's different. It is different. He's coming from a different place. Some people perceive [my X-Files character] Skinner to be complex. I just basically was trying to remember my lines, so I guess that's what they perceived as complexity. But this guy, definitely, there's a lot going on with him. He's very layered, very complex. So it's very different. And I think it's going to be a real treat.
You play essentially the heavy.
Pileggi: You know what? In his own mind, he's not. He has to believe, and I have to believe as an actor, that what he's doing is right. He's doing it to protect this young man. He's doing it to help him make his way back into civilized society. And there's certain ways he has to do things that some people probably won't perceive as being the right way to do it, but in his mind he is.
What was it about this series that persuaded you to go back to Canada and series TV?
Pileggi: I was blown away by the script. I thought it was really good. The writing was great. I thought the characters were absolutely wonderful, and I thought the idea was a great direction to take with something like this. And then when I saw the pilot I was proved right.
Can you talk about how physical these roles are?
Pileggi: I had to make a basket. That's about as physical as it got. But I made it. I was nailing that thing. That was the hardest part of the show for me, was hitting that basket.
Your character comes into conflict with his sister for control of the family fortune?
Pileggi: I think that's a big part of it, yeah. The fact that she controls one part of the empire, and I control another part of the empire. Both of us are fighting for the soul of Tarzan, of this kid, John Clayton. It hasn't been fully explained to me, but I'm really excited that they're bringing this aspect into it for me as a character. It's going to really take it even further and make it even more complex.
I know we're here to talk about Tarzan, but I have to ask you about The X-Files. Has there been any talk about a second feature film?
Pileggi: I haven't heard any talk about it. They haven't said anything to me. So I really don't. I have absolutely no knowledge of anything about that.
Would you be willing to do it?
Pileggi: I don't know. ... Yeah, probably I would do it. I owe a lot to The X-Files. I owe a lot to that whole nine years. I met my wife, I had my daughter. So it was a big part of my life, but it's nice to move on. And having played that character for so long, and now it's like a fresh start, it's a new chapter, it's a new adventure, and I'm really excited about this. You know when you finish with something you don't want to go back?
Are you worried that you'll be typecast?
Pileggi: I was worried about it. Like I said, after I finished doing The X-Files I had to go back to acting class to see if I could still act. Honestly. And then this came about, and fortunately somebody thinks that I can still act and play something other than Skinner. So, knock on wood, I'm really grateful and really fortunate to have the opportunity.
Miguel Nunez, you've got a thankless job in that you're the audience surrogate?
Nunez: Absolutely. That's the best way to put it. The flava.
Can you talk a little bit about your character?
Nunez: I'm Jane's partner, no-nonsense, by the book. I try to help her become a better cop, because I have more experience than she. She doesn't reveal to me the situation that's going on with her and Clayton, but we're best friends and partners. I sense something is going on. There will always be some level of curiosity going on and some level of secrets that she's going to keep from me that I have to try to find out. And just providing some humor here and there. Just keeping it going.
Is your character going to be this sharp of a dresser [Nunez is wearing a very nice suit]?
Nunez: You know something? I talked to them about that, and they said they don't know if New York detectives are this sharp. I am, but I don't know if they are. I will be in his personal life, when he's off duty. But they did tell me I will have an ex-wife, and Sam will be living in an apartment by himself. He lost his wife and kid, because he's dedicated to his job. They did tell me that. So there's a lot of layers, which I'm looking forward to playing.
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