Lara Croft has seen quite the resurgence as of late over the last few years, mainly thanks to Crystal Dynamics and its two amazing Tomb Raider games, including the self-titled 2013 release and its hit sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider. Now, with a possible third game in the works, Warner Bros. is hoping to capitalize on the franchise by giving it the big-screen treatment, but with a more human direction than the Angelina Jolie films took years ago.
Vikander recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to discuss the revival of Lara Croft, and what makes her such an ideal big-screen heroine. “She has all the fierce, tough, curious, intelligent traits,” Vikander says, “but we’ve stripped away all of her experience. She hasn’t gone on an adventure just yet. She thought he was a stuck up businessperson living in the modern youth culture of suburban London, but then this whole box of information. This is the beginning.”
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But the film will follow Croft at the start of her legacy, rather in the midst of it. “I was surprised that my mum knew what Tomb Raider was. That’s due to the fact that Angelina Jolie made Lara Croft such an icon. But this is a beautiful way of showing a very loved character from more angles.”
Vikander is taking up the role after winning an Oscar for best supporting actress for The Danish Girl, but that suits her just fine. “I’m emotionally drawn to something that’s very different from what I’ve done before,” she says. “Naturally that gives me an extra thrill. I have mostly done dramas and indie films in my career but I don’t know how many times I’ve watched big adventure films like Indiana Jones or The Mummy. I love to get embraced in all those big journeys and to do an action role has always been a child’s dream of mine.”
There are a lot of challenges as well – but she’s up for them. “Just like in The Wave, we have a lot of water sequences,” she says. “I spent my last two days of shooting in a tank and that was my 16th total day being fully drenched or submerged in the water.”
“For one action scene, we used the London venue for Olympic rafting,” she also noted. “They threw me down that river — with my hands tied — about 50 times. I didn’t need to act, just react!”
She’s also pleased by the success of another female hero at the box office – Wonder Woman. “I went to the cinema and saw Wonder Woman the other day. It’s a mixture of joy and sadness pouring over me, as I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I haven’t seen women onscreen like that.’ And I wondered how many stories there have there been throughout the years that haven’t been told. If Wonder Woman made such an impact, which it deserves to, then we need to use ten times as much force to make some change. Because it needs to happen.”
The Tomb Raider reboot, which also features Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu and Dominic West, opens in March 2018.
