If there is one actress who knows how to keep setting benchmarks on top of benchmarks, it is Angelina Jolie. With movies like Maleficent and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, she has proved time and again just what she is capable of. It’s amazing how her roles vary so differently and she is able to pull them all off with perfection!
In 2001, Angelina Jolie starred in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and although the film mostly has negative reviews to its name, her performance was considered to be the silver lining. At first, even she was skeptical before getting into the project. While all of that changed during the filming of the film, it took a serious toll on her mental health.
Angelina Jolie’s Mental Health Suffered on Tomb Raider
In an interview with Cinema, Angelina Jolie opened up about how she was jumping from one stunt to the next, with no regard for her personal safety. Director Simon West stated that Jolie would have no problem performing the stunts that even her stunt doubles would refuse to.
“Angelina was doing triple back flips on the set. She was doing the bunji jumps from 50 feet up in the air. She was laughing. The stunt doubles were clinging to their safety ropes. For one scene where Lara surfs through the air on a thin log, her stunt double refused to do it. Angie said ‘no problem’. Within a week, she was going, ‘I love it! Let’s go again!'”
As per Jolie, she did all this because being afraid made her feel alive. However, at times even she had doubts about what she was doing. Angelina Jolie recalled a time when she sat and cried in a bathtub, looking at the bruises and cuts.
“I’ve always been ridiculously fearless. I feel alive when I’m afraid. And you know what? The worst thing that happens is I die. At least I lived. Of course, at times I said, ‘I’m an actor. What am I doing? Please, somebody get me back to my hotel room. One night, I was sitting in my bathtub with all my bruises and cuts. I was crying and thinking, ‘What am I doing? I can’t pull this off? I can’t even keep the guns straight. I keep hitting myself with her stupid braid. But after a few months of pushing yourself, you’re suddenly swinging on a bungee rope and realizing, ‘Wow, I’m not hitting the wall.”
Well, it looks like not even cuts and bruises on her skin were going to deter Jolie from her goal!
Despite the fact that Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was met with mixed reviews, the film turned out to be a box office success with $274 million.
Angelina Jolie Was Skeptical at First
Hollywood isn’t the best when it comes to turning video games into live-action movies, which caused Jolie to be a bit skeptical about accepting the role of Lara Croft. Jolie stated that while it was flattering, “it was the craziest thing” she had ever heard. The Eternals actress recalled how her ex-husband used to play Tomb Raider and she’d say to him, “Oh, look at her b**asts.”
After meeting West, though, everything fell into line. Jolie stated, “He told me it wouldn’t be campy or stupid. I realized it was a real movie with a solid character.” Jolie then had to go through intense training for two and a half months, however, she stated that she was having a great time!
Jolie went on to reprise her role in the sequel, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life. The sequel, too, ended up receiving negative reviews, and a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 24%, four percent more than its predecessor.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is available to stream on HBO Max.
Source: Cinema
