Alexander Skarsgard sure knows how to offset the uproar over his missing loincloth in “The Legend of Tarzan.”
“I’m actually wearing it right now,” teases Skarsgard, joking about the brouhaha regarding this Tarzan’s more civilized article of clothing as he portrays the jungle warrior in Warner Bros.’ new take on a classic tale.
“I do all my phoners in a loincloth.”
“Phoners or… ?” I ask, hinting at the obvious rhyme.
The 39-year-old “True Blood” alum beams, cracking up. “Exactly! I do all my boners in loinclothes.”
And that’s just the beginning of our revealing conversation, which leads to all sorts of places: being poisoned by Lady Gaga, how other straight men should approach a gay sex scene (“dive in”), and why – after giving us his best Farrah Fawcett impersonation last year – shooting “The Legend of Tarzan” “was nothing compared to that night in drag.”
So, I don’t know if you know this, but gay men love you.
Oh, really?
They do. Is that surprising to hear?
Well, I don’t know. I’ve always been… I don’t know how to answer that question, but thank you. That’s very flattering to hear. It’s always been the most natural thing to me because my uncle and godfather is a gay man and so growing up, even as a little toddler, it was just as natural as being straight. My aunt would show up with her husband and my uncle would show up with his husband. He was, by far, out of my father’s four siblings (Alexander’s father is actor Stellan Skarsgard), the most fashionable and the most trendy, cool guy. So, when I was a kid, he was the one I looked up to. I thought he was really badass: fit and awesome and cool, and obviously not because he was gay.
When I became a teenager and the kids made fun of other teenagers who were gay, I never really understood that. It just baffled me because my idol, my godfather, was gay, and he was the coolest guy I knew. I just couldn’t understand how that could be an insult.
I said yes.
