Here are some photos of Alicia Vikander promoting Tomb Raider in Germany and London in the past week. The photos of Alicia in the Louis Vuitton dress are from the German photocall for Tomb Raider. The photos where Alicia is wearing slacks and a camel-colored coat are from her promotional appearance at “Tomb Raider Escape” which is some kind of set piece thing for fans, where they can actually go in and see the real set they used for Tomb Raider and play interactive games in the little mini-amusement park or whatever.
When I covered Vikander’s American Vogue interview a few weeks ago, I took issue with the fact that people involved with this new Tomb Raider movie were sort of throwing shade on the two Angelina Jolie-Lara Croft movies. Dominic West – who plays Lara’s father in the new Tomb Raider – told Vogue that this version will be “Less boobs, more fighting.” There was also some general thoughts that Alicia’s Lara is “more flesh and blood” (or realistic) than Jolie’s Lara. Which makes me laugh because I’ve seen the trailer for Tomb Raider, and it’s a mess of CGI. Anyway, it was a thing and I guess people were wondering if Alicia was going to spend a lot of time trashing Angelina Jolie during this promotional tour. She is not. Vikander told one magazine:
“I could never compete with what Angelina did. She made her into an icon because she is an icon. But this is our different interpretation, we’re focused on the reboot of the game which came out a few years ago. It’s the origin story – we’re not trying to copy or reinvent what she did.’
Which is a good answer. Alicia was asked about Angelina again in a British interview, and she had nice things to say about Jolie… and Michael Fasssbender.
Alicia Vikander gushed over her marriage to Michael Fassbender by revealing she has had “the most happy year”. The pair tied the knot last year after meeting on the set of 2016 film, The Light Between Oceans. Vikander spoke with a “twinkle in her eye” about her hew husband, according to stand-in Lorraine host, Kate Garraway.
The Swedish star said: “I’ve had definitely, maybe the most happy year. I carry a smile on my face I think most of the time,” adding that Fassbender is currently in town and hinted he could attend Tuesday night’s Tomb Raider premiere. The couple are famously private about their lives, with the 29-year-old saying: “It’s a lovely thing. It’s a nice thing to choose to be private even though you have the job you do.”
Vikander’s latest on-screen role is as Lara Croft, taking over the iconic role from Angelina Jolie.
On taking over the role, the actress explained: “I grew up playing the game actually and saw Angelina Jolie up on the screen. It meant a huge amount back then to finally see a woman lead that kind of action film.”
So there you go… Alicia is not going to make this promotion all about how Angelina’s Lara is big-boobed trash. Alicia is going to make this promotion about how happy she is with Michael Fassbender.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN.
I don’t think she ever was but the media LOVES to pit women against each other as if we can’t coexist peacefully
She seems charisma deficient.
She made a great robot in that movie with Oscar Isaacs though. It was great, mostly because of Oscar.
“She seems charisma deficient”
Thank you! I thought I was the only one thinking like that.
That is a good way of describing her lack of appeal to me..In the UK currently on the BBC iPlayer both Lara Croft movies are avail to watch ..I started both ….probably just to gawk at Mr Weiss in a vest..😻
Despite the obvious flaws ..AJ..who looked so young there had a micheivious look and undoubtably had ‘something ‘ that made you half believe it..good accent too
Just to think that is where she met Maddox and he is now almost an adult!
I think she’s a very good actress but she doesn’t come across as a charismatic person.
I saw the trailer this weekend and no I don’t think I will be spending my £14 I never saw the first one but it wasn’t that long ago to have a re-boot. She didn’t seem to have any emotion in her voice..
I don’t know about her playing Lara Croft but I thought she was fabulous as Ava the manipulative AI-robot/machine in the movie Ex Machina.
https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/927889/Alicia-Vikander-uncomfortable-Kate-Garraway-Michael-Fassbender-marriage-Lorraine
She wasn’t exactly gushing about her Fassbender, though, it was more about saying some platitudes to change the subject. The clip of the interview is very very awkward, like she doesn’t want to speak much about her abuser husband in case someone will ask about his abuse allegations… No one will, but just in case someone does…
Exactly, the media is the worst when it comes to fabricating stories about nonexistent feuds between women.
I like Alicia, and we’ll see if audiences like her version of Lara Croft. I’m sure Angelina is wishing Alicia luck with her film.
The boobs thing *was* the point of the original LC game. Big boobs and tiny shorts and vest. When they came to make the film, there was lots of angst because apparently AJ wasn’t booby enough. They actually photoshopped her boobs bigger in the posters to appease the gamers and fans.
I’m glad it’s being pointed out that this new version is not about the boobs because it was a ridiculous thing to begin with and should never have been LC’s narrative in the game.
…completely miscast in the last Bourne …maybe a poc might make the next TR reboot more interesting…
Is she naturally that dark or does she tan?
Self tanner galore. She’s Swedish, she literally paints herself another ethnicity. Yes, yes, there are multi-ethnic Swedes but SHE is not one of them.
As a Swedish person, it’s always funny to me when people assume all ethnic Swedes must have a pale complexion. Olive skin isn’t that rare, and I don’t really see how it would make her “multi-ethnic”?
I obviously don’t for sure if she tans or not, but she’s stated multiply times in interviews that it’s her natural complexion. Why are you so sure she is lying?
Perhaps she has an ancester or two who migrated or were carried to that region from elsewhere?
I agree with you, she looked like a typical white young girl when she was little. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1dCi1IGuDI
And I can’t believe she’s 1.66 m. Her arms are surprisingly short which makes her look shorter than she is. If you compare her to Jennifer Aniston when Jen was her age during Friends era, Jen is about the same height but she looked so much more proportionate and could pass for a 5″6′ or 5″7′.
@caroline
No way. Are you serious thats her? Oh my gawd. Thats insane if it is her. She basically rearranged her entire face down to her skin complexion. Only the eye color is the same.
@ Krill
I’m pretty sure it’s her. Same nose shape and the way her mouth moved was the same, plus they spoke Swedish and you could recognize when the host called her Alicia. At 0.29 min, it was clearly written that the child’s name was Alicia Vikander.
Can’t speak for anything else, but the child in the clip has on foundation that’s visibly lighter than her neck when she turns to the side (and they do put makeup on children for tv appearances, even short ones like this).
She’s like Lena Olin (another Swede) in that both have an olive complexion and they choose to additionally tan. So while she tans, she’s never been super pale like the stereotype a lot of people have about Scandinavians.
Also, she’s talked about being told to stay out of the sun for a film role and I believe they even put powder on her to make her look paler for A Royal Affair, so some (although I doubt all) of the tanning may just be natural exposure to the sun. Some people naturally tan up quite a lot…I’m a light skinned Black woman, about Zendaya’s color, but I deepen a few shades when I’m out in the sun a lot. My ex bf was Southern Italian and during the summer he would naturally tan a lot.
Good comparison with Lena. Both women look like they’re more Mediterranean in ancestry.
They both have vallon blood allegedly but that is very rare. I suspect jewish ashkenazi ancestry which there are a lot of in Sweden, especially in the entertainment industry in Sweden.
As much solar protection as one can use, you’ll never to be paler than you naturally are; so, Vikander is a brunete with pale skin who decided to go for a tanner look with the help of spray tanning. Natural exposure to the sun varies along the year and so do natural tans, but she always looks like a overly ripe papaya. She looked a lot better some years ago, much paler and a bit fuller-figured. Then Hollywood happened…
Dominic West was the jerk here. Why should Alicia Vikander have to answer for his or anyone else’s bad behavior?
I don’t know how old you are, but when the game first came out, Lara Croft’s boobs were the point. Real life models were trotted out at advertising shows with their boobs being the most important attributes. It was also important that she wear the tinniest shorts and vest top with her gun holster pushing her boobs out to make them bigger.
When AJ was picked to play her in the film, there was real angst that she wasn’t booby enough. Her boobs were photoshopped bigger for the posters to satisfy the character’s fans.
Out of context, Dominic West’s comments are crass, but if you paid attention to the original narrative of the character and the marketing around it, boobs were the most important attribute of the character. Nevermind anything else.
Dominic is essentially telling people who are still sold to that old, degrading idea that this Lara is not going to pander to them like the old one did.
She is more talented than Jolie.
Sure.
If deadpan and sleepy are your jam..
No ma’am.
I’m not even a die hard Jolie fan but damn if I sit here and pretend your version of talent is correct…
Oh honey, no.
Ha, yeah sure.
Sorry Mona, that’s just not true. Both are very talented women.
Dream on.
The media’s desire to pit women against each other will never cease to amaze me. I’m not sure Jolie and Vikander have even met and it was Dominic West who made the comment, not Alicia (by the way, that sounds like something notorious, cheating douchebag Noah Solloway would say). Someone should ask him to further explain himself rather than trying to drag Alicia into it.
I like that she was prepared for those questions and refused to play that game.
Me too. It is ridiculous that they are trying to pit her against Jolie (especially on a silly action movie franchise based on a video game).
Did the media do that with every endless Spiderman that comes out, try to get the star to trash the previous actor?
She seems to get a lot of flak here, but sod it, I like her.
Same, I like her too, she’s a much better actress than some recent media darlings and her only apparent flaw is being ‘boring’. Big deal!
I like her too. She is pretty talented. I have seen her in both the Danish Girl and Ex Machina and she was great in both. I will definitely try to watch any movie she is in. She is not the most photogenic and she doesn’t make for the most exciting red carpet entrances but she is enjoyable to watch it a role.
I used to think I would hate Carey Mulligan too but now I would watch any movie she is in.
I like her, too.
I do too! But to be fair someone like Jennifer Lawrence with a big, loud personality just really isn’t my cup of tea. I relate much more to someone like Alicia.
@Cate, I agree, I like Alicia, she’s not a “drama queen”, she just goes about her work and life without a lot of drama.
JLaw gets on my last nerve, and judging by the fact her last 4 or 5 films have been major flops I’m not the only one fed up with her loud and boozy shenanigans.
Citney, I like Lawrence, but Vikander would have been more convincing as Red Sparrow. 🙂
Yup. Maybe I’m biased because I’m Swedish but I love her. I saw her in Pure during a film festival eight or nine years ago and she was a revelation in that. I’ve seen everything she’s done, and she was only meh in Man from Uncle and Bourne, IMO. And she did her best with the hot mess that was Tulip Fever.
I like her as well. I think she’s quite talented and I’ve enjoyed all of her performances (that I’ve seen).
I like her too. Regardless of her personal life and rumors which I don’t care that much about she has been good in her films. I appreciate actors who aren’t in my face all the time.
I’m kinda warming up to this film? If it’s anything like the rebooted video game, it will be a fun popcorn flick. Alicia’s a fantastic actress, and anyone who has seen Ex Machina knows that she can do tough and resilient well.
Excellent response, honestly.
I don’t think West’s comments were a slam on Jolie, but moreso a slam on the marketing and original LC movies/games. They were all boobs–that was the point. It was degrading. And although Jolie fit that bill for that iteration of the game (she has always had a larger chest for her frame), it still wasn’t enough and they digitally altered her chest to be even bigger for posters and whatnot.
That’s the way I took it.
Just look at the posters for each version. Jolie has obviously enhanced boobs and Vikander doesn’t. The marketing has a different focus this go ‘round.
I *love* her in that coat! I love that entire outfit. She would benefit from taking style cues from Meghan Markle, IMO.
I appreciate Jolie far more now than her past. Maturation and all. Aside from a couple of decent shows, her acting consisted of a long series of poses and gaping mouths. She was the perfect choice for the first Tomb Raiders. My boys have always been video gamers (all of us actually), and we have a ton of merchandise for several platforms dating back to the mid-90s. It’s a shame comics, animations, Manga, ect depict women as they do, but the history revolves around exaggeration. And female attributes are no holes barred. Heavy Metal keeps flashing in my mind, but they’re all the same with varying degrees of nudity. That’s why Jolie was perfect physically. Boobs, boobs, boobs. Early game releases were marketed specifically using Croft’s exaggerated attributes against the creator’s vision. I do hope with our shifting culture, women will be designed, drawn and created without ludicrous proportions, but I’m probably dreaming… Disney has its own problems too. In any case, I’m thankful they’re trying to focus on storylines and less on stimulation and exposure.
And even with Angelina’s generous assetts, it was not enough : they ad to alter her breasts so that they can look even bigger and rounder. Proof (as if needed any) that women are never enough.
I remember that! I literally lol’d when watching the first film because her boobage shot out of the screen and smacked everyone. I have visions of Austin’s fem bots.
The director did that amazing Norwegian film The Wave…so I hope this turns out decent. I usually hate reboots but I’m cautiously optimistic.
She’s so incredibly boring and bland that it’s quite baffling. I’m like “wtf just why?” when I see her articles lmao
When I first saw Gal Gadot I didn’t believe she could pull Wonder Woman off, but at the moment she landed on to save Batman, my heart was taken. So I’m really rooting for Alicia.
One thing about Gal though is she’s very charismatic. Charisma is something that Alicia, even with all of her talent, does not have. Usually you’re looking for the charisma of the actor in these type of films because the story is second to the action, and not that great.
Gal is charismatic and a perfect physical fit for Wonder Woman but unfortunately, remains a mediocre actress at best – see: every single scene where she had to portray anything resembling an intense emotion eg grief, rage, etc. Emoting is not her strong suit.
Alicia is the opposite – talented but not really making a strong impression offscreen. Jolie had both the talent and the offscreen magnetism, but personally if I had to pick someone with just one, I’d rather see a capable actress trained into handling action, than have the producers attempt to reverse-engineer an ‘action star’ into a decent performance. I mean, they did it with Jyn Erso and now with Captain Marvel (Felicity Jones and Brie Larson), unless Alicia really sucks onscreen then I don’t think her version of Lara Croft is going to suffer.
Yeah, her charisma oozed through, but I couldn’t see it in pics or her previous job (Fast and furious). Plus I had Lynda Carter in mind, and they’re so different physically, plus she’s iconic so I got to the point of almost pittying Gal for taking this role. However, it was a sweet lesson I learned, and now I could watch Gal’s WW all day.
I don’t like or dislike her much like J Law I’m just not seeing what all the fuss is about. Both women are beautiful but AV is boring and J Law always plays the same character I feel 🤷🏾♀️
I can take her or leave her. I thought she was good in Ex Machina, but I’ve been pretty underwhelmed ever since. However, my estimation of her as a person has just increased 100% now that I know she used to play the TR games.
She did not… it’s just a marketing strategy.
I wish they had cast someone in this role who had some muscles and strength ( Jolie certainly wasn’t as thin then as she is now, but she never looked athletic.) I can’t picture Lara Croft as teeny tiny…I picture her looking muscular and strong, like Mia Hamm.
Gimme someone who can kick some butt! 😁
(Does that body type even exist in Hollywood? Probably not! )
Jolie’s two TR movies were awful and Jolie’s performance in them was shallow. This Tomb Raider will probably suck like all videogame movies but that doesn’t make Jolie’s movies any good.
I agree
I agree. I would see Alicia’s version though. It’s more realistic and it’s refreshing to see an action heroine who hasn’t been exaggerated in some way (height, Sigourney Weaver or T&A, Angelina Jolie) to justify her existence. If you’re a fit woman, you can be a credible action heroine. Alicia’s pro-level ballerina; that’s fit in my books.
All tomb raiders are reallisticaly average with tiny but fit bodies, anyone knows that! It’s a shame that such a hard profession has such low wages, but then again there are less and less tumbs lying around to be found and the robots are taking all the good raiding jobs… actually, a robot has taken this job too, go figure!
I agree with this, actually, even though Angie was iconic in that role.
I like that the new Star Wars movies have female leads who, as you said, aren’t physically exaggerated or sexualised. Same with Charlize Theron as Furiosa (though I think she’s even more badass with her mechanical arm). And I’ll always consider it a crying shame that Uma Thurman was so badly injured on the set of Kill Bill thanks to Tarantino’s negligence, that she never did another action role again after The Bride. (Though idk Sigourney Weaver was actually enhanced onscreen as Ripley, isn’t her actual height like 6 feet or something?)
@Teacakes, well said. You don’t need an “excuse” (except physical fitness, which can be in a slender form) to make a woman compelling in an action-heavy role.
@Loo:
Angie doing almost all her own stunts in the LC films was the best part of the films. The bungee ballet Angie did was awesome.
Angie trained her butt off, had to gain 20 pounds, which was hard for a naturally slim body type such as Angie’s.
Alicia trained hard too, not to the point Angie did, plus Alicia had 8 or 9 stunt doubles doing her stunts, where Angie had one stunt double.
Have you seen her behind the scenes videos? She trained more than Jolie,if we want to be honest.
Also,Vikander has also done most of her stunts. I think she had four doubles like in every action movie.
When she was on Graham Norton, she said that in her version, the boobs are less pointy.
I like Alicia and I don’t think she’s bland. Alexander Skarsgård and Joel Kinnaman have a similar demeanour to Alicia; they’re not noted for being bland. I prefer this type of realism in female action heroines where it’s not all about the physical. Also, I like how diplomatic she’s been with the Alicia-versus-Angelina angle the rags are predictably going with.
Alicia Vikander’s Mom’s friend, is that you? How is it going?
Uh what? So we’re just going to claim every longtime commenter who refuses to join in on consensus dislike of an actress, is biased somehow?