Alicia Vikander thrown in the deep end for Tomb Raider

Alicia Vikander spent 16 days submerged in water and was thrown down a makeshift river 50 times for ‘Tomb Raider’.
The 28-year-old actress will take on the iconic role of Lara Croft – made famous by Angelina Jolie in the original ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ film in 2003 – in a new big screen adaptation of the video game series and she admits she has had to take on some serious stunts during the shoot including tackling rapids.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she shared: "Just like in ‘The Wave’, we have a lot of water sequences. I spent my last two days of shooting in a tank and that was my 16th total day being fully drenched or submerged in the water. For one action scene, we used the London venue for Olympic rafting. They threw me down that river – with my hands tied – about 50 times. I didn’t need to act, just react!"
Alicia’s Lara – who was created by British games company Core Design in 1996 – will see the daredevil archaeologist at the start of her adventures, as the film is based on the latest two video games in the series, the most recent being 2015’s ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Although the role is now hers, Alicia has nothing but praise for
Angelina because she first brought Lara to life on the big screen.
She said: "I was surprised that my mother knew what ‘Tomb Raider’ was. That’s due to the fact that Angelina Jolie made Lara Croft such an icon. But this is a beautiful way of showing a very loved character from more angles."
The screen starlet says Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman has inspired her to make sure her on screen alter ego has as big an impact as there is real lack of women playing superheroes.
She said: "I went to the cinema and saw ‘Wonder Woman’ the other day. It’s a mixture of joy and sadness pouring over me, as I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I haven’t seen women onscreen like that.’ And I wondered how many stories there have there been throughout the years that haven’t been told. If ‘Wonder Woman’ made such an impact, which it deserves to, then we need to use 10 times as much force to make some change. Because it needs to happen."