At the Los Angeles premiere of “Tomb Raider,” the reimagined action franchise based off the video game series originally released in 1996, screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet said Croft’s relatability was a trait the creators wanted to highlight in the reboot with star Alicia Vikander.
“She kind of feels like all of us and the struggles she has are things that anyone can relate to, so I’m hoping that’s what people respond to,” Robertson-Dworet said at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre. She added that while she loved the previous movies and Angelina Jolie’s original portrayal, the creators wanted to focus on the source material from the video game in the 2018 version.
“The first movie, I doubt very much that Angelina Jolie asked for it. There’s like a scene of her showering and sort of rubbing herself,” Robertson-Dworet said. “We really wanted to get away from that and focus more on Lara kicking ass.”
Director Roar Uthaug also spoke about what makes fans of the movies and games connect with Lara Croft, “She’s not a superhero,” he said. “She falls, she gets hurt, but she picks herself up and keeps fighting for what she thinks is right.”
Ahead of the screening, Vikander called being cast as the lead a “wow moment” because it was so rare seeing a woman starring in the male-dominated universe of fantasy, action films.
#AliciaVikander talks the importance of #TombRaider to the new generation and in the #MeToo era pic.twitter.com/K6CQtQbKwR
— Variety (@Variety) March 13, 2018
Out of all the difficult stunts and action sequences she performed, Vikander admits the most challenging moments were her scenes in the water. “I didn’t know the hardest thing throughout the shoot [would be filming] in water for about 12 days,” she said. “I was prepared for the kind of pain and cuts and difficult action scenes, and, by the end, I was a bit bummed that the cold water was going to be the thing that actually took me down.”
“Tomb Raider” opens in theaters March 16.
