Alicia Vikander is going to extremes to become Lara Croft in a new behind-the-scenes featurette for the reboot of Tomb Raider. It's been an extraordinary past three years for Vikander, who following her breakthrough role as the humanoid A.I. Ava in Ex Machina in 2014 nabbed a plum role in 2015 in director Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. opposite Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. Later in the year, the Swedish actress starred opposite Eddie Redmayne in the Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe biographical drama The Danish Girl, which earned Vikander several accolades including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
The Oscar win opened up a realm of possibilities for Vikander, who in 2016 starred opposite Matt Damon in the action-adventure Jason Bourne. Damon, naturally, was the performer who got to leap in the action for the franchise film, and now with Tomb Raider, it's Vikander's turn.
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A reboot of the Angelina Jolie films based on the iconic video game heroine, Tomb Raider is giving Vikander her long-awaited opportunity to become a part of a big action-adventure. In a new featurette for the film, set for a March 16, 2018, release, Vikander explains how she became fascinated by Lara as an 8-year-old. Vikander says she "hadn't seen a girl as the lead character in a video game" before Tomb Raider, and was impressed with how she was "extremely fierce," "capable" and "a big adventurer."
Now that Vikander is getting the opportunity to play Lara in the flesh, she appears intent on not squandering any opportunity in bringing the character to life. In the new 2 minute 51 second featurette, fans not only get a glimpse at Vikander as she appears in the film, but get some in-depth looks at how the actress dove headfirst into role during the making of the film.
Titled Tomb Raider: Becoming Lara Croft, the featurette shows Vikander doing just that, whether she's immersed herself in flowing rapids, making adventurous leaps or, via a harness, hanging from dangerous heights off the ground.
Vikander explains in the video that Tomb Raider is an origins story for Lara, about her "becoming the action hero that we know her to be." In addition to Vikander, the featurette includes interviews with her co-stars Daniel Wu, Walton Goggins and Dominic West, as well as stunt coordinator Franklin Henson, who says the actress does it all, from "fight club, wire work, water work, shoot-outs, chases. It's relentless."
From an actress who could have easily settled into her pick of any dramatic roles after her Oscar win, it's great to see Vikander examining a large spectrum of different movie genres, and Tomb Raider promises to be her most physically ambitious project yet. Saying she wanted Lara to "be a strong, physical girl," Vikander is also shown in the video going through intense workouts to be in peak shape to play the character. Vikander's strength and muscle-building regimen was so impressive that Goggins admitted that he was embarrassed to take his shirt off, adding, "and I go to the gym five days a week."
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Source: Warner Bros.