Angelina Jolie On Why She Initially Said No To Playing Lara Croft In Tomb Raider

Angelina Jolie starred in the original Tomb Raider movies and Lara Croft remains one of her most recognizable roles, but the actress says she wasn't always keen on playing the part. Speaking to Collider, Jolie said she was initially hesitant about signing on for the movies, and in fact, she said no at one stage. But she eventually came around when she learned she would be able to travel the world and train with the British Military to get ready for the action role.

"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," she said. "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. And I would encourage anybody to do that. Sign up for as much as you can, give yourself a few months, push yourself to the limit and see, 'What can I do?' And you find that there's a lot you didn't know and some crazy, weird things you can do or you're capable of, so I love it."

Jolie said she had three months to prepare for Tomb Raider and she wasn't sure she wanted to sign on until she found out how extensive the training would be to help her prepare to film some of the stunt sequences herself. Her answer came in response to a question about when in her career she realized it was valuable to be able to do you own stunts as an actor.

The Tomb Raider movie series debuted in 2001 with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which was followed up by The Cradle of Life in 2003.

Jolie will be seen next in the movie Those Who Wish Me Dead, which is out today, May 14. Jolie plays a firefighter who protects a young boy (Finn Little) who witnesses a murder and then is running for his life. The movie also stars Nicholas Hoult, Aiden Gillen, and Jon Bernthal.

As for the Tomb Raider movie series, it was revived in 2018 with Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander in the role of Lara Croft. A sequel is currently in the works.