Angelina Jolie - Interviews

LARA CROFT LIVE AND KICKING

From the outset, depicting video game heroine Lara Croft on the big screen put Oscar-winning Angelina Jolie under the spotlight. Not least for the size of her bust.

It's a question the outspoken 26-year-old star has had to answer a lot since Lara Croft: Tomb Raider opened with a box-office roar in America.

Lara Croft is the tough video game vixen who encapsulates the idea of the empowered woman. She also has the kind of voluptuous curves and body hugging outfits loved by devotees of the Tomb Raider games. In short, the ultimate cyber-babe.

"Oh it's the breast question," laughs Jolie about the padding she wore for the part. "I'm a 36C and Lara is a 36D. She's one cup size bigger than me so we gave her some proper padding. Having a good bra helped."

Known for being open and outspoken, Jolie is happy not to be actual Lara-size. "I gained weight for this role to give myself a more curvy look, but personally I wouldn't want those breasts."

It seems odd that an actress renowned for doing dark edgy roles like her Oscar-winning part in Girl, Interrupted would chose to do a summer action blockbuster. The 100 million dollar spectacular was filmed in Pinewood with sequences in Iceland and Cambodia.

"People told me I should be doing things considered to be more serious," she admits. "I have drowned in being deep and complicated and dark. It's sometimes hard in life to be free so I thought I want to go on this adventure."

Jolie loved the fact that Croft is both athletic and intelligent. "This is the first time I've happened to do something mainstream and have some fun with it. It's funny, this is me doing an action movie but I've never played such a lady.

"Lara has been raised in England but she's not uptight," explains Jolie. "She's wicked and wild with the same sense of freedom of an Indiana Jones. She's completely sensual, free and primitive. More than anything she is also athletic. I love everything she stands for."

The fact that Lara can slug it out with a man appealed to Jolie. "She's an empowered woman, it was just so much fun doing it. We gave her the things that make her Lara."

Director Simon West doesn't think anyone but Jolie could have done the role. While other attempts at turning video game characters into big screen heroes have mostly failed, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider seems to have hit the jackpot. West puts it down to Jolie.

"She's totally right for the role. It's like finding Sean Connery in 1962 for James Bond," says West. "I now can't see how I'd have done the film without her."

It was a tough gruelling shoot for Jolie, who did a number of her own stunts. The actress had to work out hard to get herself in shape for the role. She trained for 10 weeks before shooting began, then kept up a rigorous physical regimen, as well as doing bungy jumping, riding motorbikes and weapon training.

"I felt exhausted but excited by the challenge. So many nights I went home with injuries, soaked in the bath and tried to get through to the next day," she says.

A bonus for Jolie was working with her father, Midnight Cowboy star Jon Voight. The pair have had a distant relationship in the past, so they were able to get in some serious bonding. Voight plays her screen father, Lord Croft. Jolie's mother is French actress Marcheline Bertrand, her parents divorced when she was young.

"Our scenes together were special for so many reasons," says Jolie, who uses her middle name. "We were in wardrobe together and having lunch together, it was great. So much of this story is about Lara reconnecting with her father."

If Tomb Raider proves the kind of worldwide box office hit it is likely to be, Jolie could be sitting on a very lucrative franchise. She's certainly found herself a slot in the Hollywood A-list for female leads. After her Oscar and this, the studios are falling over themselves for her.

It is easy to see why West was so enamoured with Jolie playing the no-nonsense sexy heroine. Jolie is candid and no-nonsense herself. In the past some of her outspoken honesty about her sex life and opinions have landed her in hot water.

But she isn't one to shirk from a question, whether it's about her tattoos or her love life with husband Billy Bob Thornton. She had a brief marriage to British actor Jonny Lee Miller in the early 90s after they did Hackers together.

"I'm just honest, I like that I don't have to worry about what I say. I really don't have the time or energy to pretend and I don't want to live that way. There's also a hell of a lot people don't know about me."

With an age gap of nearly 20-years, her marriage last year to Thornton was under the gossip column microscope from the start. The relationship is going strong, she says.

"When I met him I knew and he knew, he's truly my favourite person. It seems I've been missing him my whole life. We have a real life and we're having fun with it."