Tomb Raider: Legend, which came out five years after the film, has always been my favourite version of Lara, and Keeley Hawes takes clear cues from Jolie's performance, as well as playing into the personality established in earlier games. Alicia Vikander, who played Lara in 2018's Tomb Raider, nails the grit and naivety of reboot Lara, but Jolie is the Tomb Raider you remember from the Lucozade bottles. Jolie was magnificent as Lara - let's not bring up Cradle of Life - perfectly understanding the mixture of sexiness without being objectified, confidence without being cocky, witty without being comedic, and strong without being brutish. Related: Interview: Natalie Clarke, The First Ever Lara CroftĪnd they were. I'd love to have seen early-'00s Jolie take on the Angel of Darkness version of Lara (it came out two years after the movie, so that was never going to happen), but even in the more regular Lara Croft role, these complaints seem foolish. There was also some worry that Jolie's eccentric personal life and tattoos made her wrong for the part. Of course, given the casual sexism of the era, there were also complaints that Angelina Jolie was too ugly to play Lara (yes, really), and that, to be blunt, her chest was too small. It didn't help that Bridget Jones' Diary pulled the same stunt with Renee Zellwegger around the same time. The controversy started before the film even made it to the silver screen, with many fans expressing disdain towards the fact an American actress had been cast as the iconic British lead. Angelina Jolie's first outing as Lara does not, however, and two decades on, it still seems unfair that it gets lumped in with the other flops. For what it’s worth, the sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (otherwise known as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Case Of The Magical Moving Colon), belongs in this category. Lara Croft’s film debut launched during the era of the bad video game movies though, when films like BloodRayne, Alone in the Dark, Hitman, Doom, and Max Payne would have been better off being released into a garbage dump than a cinema, and this has long stained its reputation. Video game movies have turned it around recently, with Sonic the Hedgehog, Detective Pikachu, and Mortal Kombat helping buck the trend of box office bombs. She’s a figure who has helped pave the way for women in Hollywood and arguably helped open up the action genre for women even further, following in the footsteps of Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton.This week marks the 20th anniversary of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider hitting cinemas, which is as good a time as any to look back on its legacy. Today, Jolie is known for doing a lot of her own stunts and has played a number of strong, badass female leads. The woman who almost said no to Tomb Raider because the role did not suit her may have existed 20 years ago, but the Angelina Jolie we’ve seen on screen since then couldn’t be more an epitomization of Lara Croft. Sign up for as much as you can, give yourself a few months, push yourself to the limit and see, ‘What can I do?’ And you find that there’s a lot you didn’t know and some crazy, weird things you can do or you’re capable of, so I love it. And I would encourage anybody to do that. But they said you can travel the world and train with the British Military and so I had three months of seeing what I could do. I said, ‘I really didn’t feel like that character suited me.’ I actually didn’t at first want to do it I said no. Here’s what the actress/producer/director said exactly:
In an interview with Collider though, Jolie reveals that she originally didn’t think she would be a good fit to play Lara Croft and explained what convinced her to change her mind and take on the fan-favorite character. Tomb Raider was one of Angelina Jolie’s first big roles and, while the actress had already won an Oscar, the action fllm thrusted her into true blockbuster territory and labeled her as a strong woman capable of taking on badass roles.