Alicia Vikander, who will be playing Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot, has discussed her own experiences growing up with the franchise, and her hopes for the new movie.
Speaking to Total Film, Vikander revealed that she used to play Tomb Raider when she was growing up – against her parent’s wishes, no less. We all love a rebel.
She explained:
I didn’t have many girlfriends who shared that interest, but I really loved it. I did play Tomb Raider back then, even though my parents said I wasn’t allowed to.
It’s certainly encouraging that the new Lara has grown up with the games. A deep understanding of the source material could be the key ingredient filmmakers need for a videogame movie that doesn’t completely suck.
And of course, Vikander bagged an Oscar for her incredible performance in The Danish Girl, so I’m sure the fact that she’s an outstanding actress will also help no end.
Vikander also revealed that she’s excited to get to work on Tomb Raider’s action sequences. You’d certainly hope that there’ll be a fair few.
She said:
I danced for many years. I really enjoy the aspect of being able to work with my physicality. In one way, I can probably do that unconsciously. But in this, it’s going to be a whole other level. It’s always wonderful when you get the chance to try things out that you never thought you would be able to do, to push yourself and your boundaries.
Vikander is our second big-screen Lara Croft, following Angelina Jolie who played the part in 2001’s decent Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and 2003’s not so decent Cradle of Life.
Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley was apparently in talks to take on the iconic role at one point, but it has since been maintained that Vikander was always the number one choice.
There’s no release date for Tomb Raider just yet, but we do know that Roar Uthaug, the man behind fantastic disaster movie The Wave will direct – If we’re not careful, we might just end up with a genuinely great big screen videogame adaptation.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.