Tomb Raider actress Alicia Vikander grew up watching action and adventure movies, wondering what it would be like to act in such rigorous stories.
Playing the iconic character Lara Croft has given her the opportunity to climb cliff faces, zipline down ropes with a pickaxe and dodge traps.
Vikander’s Tomb Raider shoot schedule revolved around multiple takes of battling henchmen, being dropped off a cliff and swimming in roaring rapids.
Determined to capture the sheer grittiness of the character, the refined Swedish actress “wanted her to be a strong physical girl, so I started to gain muscle and build strength.”
Vikander worked with personal trainer Magnus Lygdbäck so she’d be prepared to perform most of the film’s stunts. Vikander packed on 12 pounds of muscle onto her 5-foot, 6-inch frame in the three months she was given to prepare for the role.
She’d hit the gym at 4 a.m. for demanding workouts that included squats, bear crawls, deadlifts, rock climbing, swimming, bicycling, training with machines, training with bodyweight, plyometrics, explosive training and medicine-ball tossing.
Vikander even learned MMA.
The result of her work — besides her eight-pack abs and remarkable muscle definition — was to be prepared for the physically demanding role requirements as well as a tough-as-nails mentally.
However, Vikander, who studied to be a principal dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet School, noted that ballet training was “more grim.”
“Nothing is going to be harder than ballet,” she said.
The 35-year-old actress recounts one day in particular when she felt overwhelmed with the relentless shoot schedule.
“I actually woke up one morning … and I actually stood in the kitchen with my husband, and he was like, ‘Are you okay?’ and I was like, ‘No, I just don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to play anymore!’” she said.
The challenging scene in mind required her hands to be tied while being swept away in 50-degree Fahrenheit raging rapids. Not to mention that she was exhausted from days of repeatedly shooting the same scene.
Vikander estimates doing 25 takes for that scene alone, each time struggling to keep her head above water.
On the other hand, she enjoyed the stunts that required taking flying leaps into giant mattresses.
Vikander’s commitment to her work is undeniable. The star won an Oscar in 2015 for her supporting role of painter Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl.
Other noteworthy performances include her portrayal of Kitty in Anna Karenina opposite Keira Knightley, Queen Caroline Mathilde in the Danish film A Royal Affair, activist Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth, and a humanoid robot in Ex Machina.
“It’s a modern Lara Croft, a strong, independent woman, and I think it’s exactly what the world needs right now,” Vikander’s personal trainer Lygdbäck said of her Tomb Raider performance.
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