Angelina Jolie is one of the actors, besides Tom Cruise, who is famously known for doing her own stunts as much as she can. The two Tomb Raider films of hers are the biggest testament to this. However, it wasn’t easy to carry out the stunts in the films and Jolie almost died while shooting one of them.
One has to wonder if The Eternals actress regrets making those films because of how high-risk they seemed to be. Also, Jolie herself once confirmed that she initially wasn’t interested at all in doing the Tomb Raider films. She only agreed because she wanted to push herself.
Angelina Jolie Nearly Died While Doing Stuntwork On Tomb Raider 2
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- The Cradle of Life (2003) grossed $157 million worldwide. Even though, it wasn’t as loved as the first one, fans still admired the action sequences. However, it wasn’t easy for Angelina Jolie to carry out those stunts. She complimented her stunt team for keeping her safe. The actress said in an interview with IGN:
“The upside-down drop of over 100 feet was, um… they (stunt team) were cautious. I remember Eunice, who is one of the stunt ladies saying to me, “We’d put our kids in this harness.” We’re close, we all know each other so well we’re like family, and I trust Simon and Eunice… But I think they were nervous. Nothing went wrong.”
However, the actual dangerous part of the stunts involved guns and the Salt star was almost shot in her right ear. Jolie said:
“It was less about the dropping and more about the gunshots. And there was one time I think where a bullet went…(She whistles, and with her finger draws an imaginary line past her right ear.)… because Gerry was spinning and the guns were shooting at each other half the time..”
Thankfully, nothing went wrong and Jolie as well as her cast mates completed filming without anyone getting harmed. However, it’s pretty much amazing that the actress actually went through all of this because initially, she wasn’t even interested in doing the Tomb Raider films.
Angelina Jolie Initially Didn’t Want To Star In The Tomb Raider Films
In an interview with Collider, Angelina Jolie admitted that she thought that the character of Lara Croft didn’t suit her. As such, she was uninterested in starring in the film. The actress revealed:
“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. 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.”
So Angelina Jolie signed on to the film because she wanted to challenge herself and in the process she delivered a great performance and established herself as an action star. The Wanted star advises that one should push themselves to their limits to see what they are capable of.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- Cradle of Life is available on Netflix.
