Actors Who Were Almost Cast As Lara Croft From Tomb Raider

There is perhaps no video game character more widely known in the world of film than Lara Croft of "Tomb Raider." Sure, recent years have brought huge names like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog to the big screen with great success, but Eidos Interactive's posh grave robber precedes their theatrical debuts by decades. Though video game movies existed long before Angelina Jolie donned the braid and thigh holsters in 2001's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," those previous attempts didn't suit Hollywood nearly as well.

The character of Lara Croft was always cut out to be a movie star. And with a force like Jolie bringing her to life, she quickly became as famous on film as in her PlayStation games. But finding the right actor to play Lara wasn't so simple. The character was both famous and infamous in the late '90s — a symbol of everything glitzy and misogynistic about the video game industry at the time. Looking back, it's hard to imagine the sharp polygons of the PS1 ever being seen as sexual, but "Tomb Raider" was marketed so fiercely on Lara's supposed sex appeal that it made the whole enterprise a sexist experiment in lackluster game design.

Many actors were considered and rumored for the part before Jolie was cast, and a similar process happened once again before Alicia Vikander took over the role in 2018. Here are some of the actors who were almost cast as Lara Croft in the "Tomb Raider" movies.

Back when the first "Tomb Raider" movie was in development in the late 1990s, Denise Richards emerged as an early frontrunner for the part. Though she may not be as well-known today as some of the other actors on this list, Richards was a rapidly rising star at the time. She'd recently starred in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi classic "Starship Troopers" and, more significantly, played Bond girl Christmas Jones in 1999's "The World Is Not Enough," opposite Pierce Brosnan.

The latter role in particular made Richards a strong choice to play Lara Croft in the eyes of the public, and rumors quickly spread that she was a shoo-in for the part. In fact, the Christmas Jones character resembled Croft so explicitly that some accused the film of stealing the video game character's design — right down to the doctoral up-do and the olive drab tank top. "She is Lara," Eidos Interactive executive John Davis told The Guardian after seeing the film. "She's tough, determined and has buckets of attitude. Whether the similarity is intentional or not, there is no doubt — Bond has fallen for our girl."

In the end, though, Richards didn't get the part. Though early reports made it sound like she had it in the bag, director Simon West later said that he always wanted Angelina Jolie for the role.

There may not have been a brighter ascending actress in Hollywood in the late '90s than Jennifer Lopez. After becoming well-known as a dancer on "In Living Color," she leveraged her fame to land leading roles in movies like "Anaconda," "Selena," and "Out of Sight" with George Clooney, all of which helped shoot her to stardom. It should be no surprise, then, that Lopez was in the running for the role of Lara Croft.

Multiple sources placed Lopez on the list of would-be Laras, and Paramount Pictures considered her a strong contender. Simon West ultimately went in a different direction for the character, but Lopez likely doesn't lose any sleep over Angelina Jolie getting the part. Today, she's an icon across several art forms and one of the most successful performers of the 21st century. Had she landed the role in "Tomb Raider," it likely would have become just a footnote on her long and impressive resume — something that Lara Croft arguably is for Jolie today.

Another early contender for the role of Lara Croft in the 1990s was Ashley Judd. By the end of the decade, the actor had established herself as a force in the crime thriller genre, starring in films like "Heat" with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro and "Double Jeopardy" with Tommy Lee Jones. The search for Lara Croft's live-action equivalent extended far and wide, so it made sense to include one of the era's hottest stars. However, the role was awarded to Angelina Jolie, who went on to have a much more prolific career in Hollywood.

Even so, Judd has never stopped working, and she's assembled quite an impressive filmography in the years since her heyday. She's appeared in movies like "Olympus Has Fallen," the "Divergent" adaptations, and both "Dolphin Tale" movies, as well as TV series like "Berlin Station" and "Twin Peaks: The Return." Judd has been right for many parts in her career, but apparently not that of Lara Croft.

Catherine Zeta-Jones had been acting for a decade when casting for "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" kicked off, but she had just recently achieved her big breakthrough in "The Mask of Zorro." The Martin Campbell feature was a huge hit and launched her to stardom, placing her in the running for the video game adaptation.

Unlike some of the other contenders, including Angelina Jolie herself, Zeta-Jones actually came from the right side of the Atlantic to play the part of Lara Croft. The famed fortune hunter is notably British, and though Zeta-Jones isn't — hailing instead from Wales — she's a great deal closer than Denise Richards or Ashley Judd.

Though she didn't end up playing Lara, Zeta-Jones did have a hugely successful decade in the 2000s. "The Mask of Zorro" led to films like "High Fidelity," "Traffic," "Ocean's Twelve," and the Broadway adaptation "Chicago." Today, Zeta-Jones is still considered one of the biggest stars of that era, and she didn't need a starring turn in a video game adaptation to make that rise to fame happen. Still, it's hard to deny that she probably would have been quite good in the role.

If you were assembling a list of hotshot brunette action stars in the late '90s, you'd be foolish not to include Dutch actor Famke Janssen. Like fellow Lara Croft contender Denise Richards, Janssen made a name for herself in the 1990s by playing a Bond girl — specifically, assassin Xenia Onatopp in 1995's "GoldenEye." Though that film is arguably more famous these days for the beloved video game it spawned, that connection to interactive media didn't help Janssen land the part.

Still, it's easy to see why Janssen was strongly considered for the part by Paramount Pictures. Not only had she co-starred in one of the most successful recent 007 films at the time, but she'd followed that appearance up with other hits like the poker thriller "Rounders" and the 1999 horror flick "House on Haunted Hill."

Though she missed out on "Tomb Raider," Janssen got her hooks into an even bigger 2000s franchise when she landed the role of Jean Grey in "X-Men." That part led to repeat appearances throughout the rest of the initial "X-Men" film trilogy, and though her grand finale in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand" was critically panned, Janssen herself is great in it. She's stayed quite active in more recent years with turns in shows like Netflix's "Hemlock Grove" and ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder," but it would have been fun to see her twist on the Lara Croft character too.

Though she was barely in her early 20s when casting for "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" was going on in the late '90s, Jennifer Love Hewitt was already a veteran actor. A steady gig on Disney's "Kids Incorporated" led to a breakout role in the hit teen drama series "Party of Five" in 1995, in addition to some other TV work. Hewitt made her mark on the big screen with 1997's "I Know What You Did Last Summer," appearing alongside fellow '90s heartthrobs Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr.

Given all of that, it makes sense that Hewitt was one of the names under scrutiny by Paramount to star as Lara Croft in the "Tomb Raider" movie. She had the look, the credits, and the cultural clout, though, like so many of the other contenders, she lacked a legitimate British heritage.

Hewitt may not have landed the part of Lara Croft, but she has had a busy 21st century nonetheless. Staying true to her roots, she's never stopped acting on television, having had major roles in shows like "Criminal Minds," "9-1-1," "The Client List," and of course, her famous starring role in "Ghost Whisperer." She's been a bit less active on the big screen over the past decade, but that doesn't mean she couldn't return someday soon.

"Demolition Man." "Speed." "The Net." "Miss Congeniality." These are just some of the movies Sandra Bullock starred in prior to the release of "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" in 2001. While many of the other actors in competition for the role were rising stars, Bullock had fully arrived by the turn of the new millennium. She was a proven box office powerhouse who'd starred alongside some of the biggest names of the decade. And at the time that "Tomb Raider" was casting, she was also still considered something of an action star — a genre she later left for the most part in favor of meatier material.

According to Eila Mell's "Casting Might-Have-Beens: A Film by Film Directory of Actors Considered for Roles Given to Others," Bullock was in the running for Lara Croft. Given her current profile as an Oscar-winning dramatic actor, it's hard to imagine her doing all the swan-diving and grave-robbing in the video game adaptation, but then again, the same could be said of Angelina Jolie. Clearly, Bullock had another path to take — one that's led her into the hallowed halls of Film Academy history and made her one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation.

Some of you reading may not know the name Elizabeth Hurley, but there are good reasons why Paramount considered her for the part of Lara Croft in "Tomb Raider." For one, she's actually British, providing some authenticity that was missing in many of the other actors up for the role. She had also been on a bit of a roll in Hollywood, appearing in the Wesley Snipes thriller "Passenger 57" and, more notably, playing Vanessa Kensington in the first two "Austin Powers" movies. In 2000, she also played the devil opposite Brendan Fraser in the offbeat comedy "Bedazzled."

Given that multiple Bond girls were considered for the part of Lara Croft, it only seems fair that a parody of a Bond girl in a parody of a Bond film would also be in the running. Though Hurley didn't get the part and never found the same fame as some of the other stars in contention, she's still quite active, recently playing Queen Helena Henstridge in the E! drama "The Royals" and appearing in a number of Christmas movies.

It's up for debate whether Pamela Anderson was ever really in the running to play Lara Croft, but as soon as reports of a "Tomb Raider" film began to circulate in the '90s, she was at the heart of them. Anderson was debatably the definitive sex symbol of her era, equally famous for her Playboy modeling and her starring role throughout the decade in "Baywatch." Given that Lara Croft was born of the early Internet misogyny that unfortunately surrounded Anderson's early career, it makes some sense that she'd be rumored to star in the movie.

At the time, weird comparisons between the two — an actual person and a polygonal video game character — weren't uncommon. In 2000, the Anderson avatar in a then-upcoming video game adaptation of Anderson's "V.I.P." TV show was compared directly to Lara, who the writer described as "the undisputed queen of the video game." The whole thing is pretty bizarre and gross, but it speaks to the kind of publicity that surrounded the "Tomb Raider" games at the time. Of course, Anderson wasn't really the right type for the role to begin with, so the rampant rumors wound up going nowhere.

Like Pamela Anderson, Demi Moore's contention for the part of Lara Croft has been reported by some, but it may have been more rumor than fact. Regardless, her name was thrown around frequently after the "Tomb Raider" movie was first announced. Of everyone on this list, Moore may have been the most established performer at the time, as well as being one of the oldest actors supposedly in the running. She was already a star in the '80s thanks to movies like "About Last Night..." and "St. Elmo's Fire," and in the '90s, she starred in everything from "Ghost" and "Indecent Proposal" to "A Few Good Men."

Moore had enough fame and physical similarity to Lara that it makes sense why her name was bandied around so much regarding the role. However, it's hard to imagine her as a real contender. She was never much of an action star, and she honestly may have been too established at the time to stoop to a video game adaptation — a genre that took decades to become anything more than a gimmick.

The last major actor heavily rumored to have been in the mix for "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" is Jeri Ryan, who rose to fame in the late '90s for playing the Borg refugee turned starship crew member Seven of Nine on "Star Trek: Voyager." Because of the immense weight that playing Seven gave her in nerd culture at the time, she was discussed by fans online as a likely pick to play the digital treasure hunter. It's unclear whether those fan rumors actually emerged out of the actual casting process, but regardless, Ryan didn't wind up with the part.

Ryan has never become much of a movie star, but she's been a staple of genre TV ever since her tenure on "Voyager." "Shark," "Leverage," "Boston Public," "Body of Proof," "Bosch," and many other shows have benefited from her talents. And of course, she reprised her beloved "Star Trek" character starting in 2020 in "Star Trek: Picard."

When it came time to reboot the "Tomb Raider" film franchise after Angelina Jolie's duology, several names rose to the top of the rumor mill. It wasn't quite the circus that the casting call in the '90s was, but there were still several big names thrown around before Alicia Vikander finally landed the part. Back in 2011, when talks of a reboot were first making the rounds, rumors claimed that Olivia Wilde was going to take up the mantle of Lara Croft. These reports were later refuted by Wilde herself, and it was many more years before the next "Tomb Raider" movie actually made it to theaters.

In the early 2010s, though, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better fit for the role than Wilde. She was coming fresh off back-to-back sci-fi action roles in "Tron: Legacy" and "Cowboys and Aliens," and she had the exact kind of charisma that fans had come to associate with the character. Though she's continued to be a prolific actor despite never playing Lara Croft, Wilde transitioned to more behind-the-camera work in the late 2010s, gaining widespread acclaim for directing "Booksmart" and a more divisive response for 2022's "Don't Worry Darling."

As early as 2009, just six years after "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life" was released in theaters, Megan Fox was already being rumored to replace Angelina Jolie and reboot the franchise. Some more recent reports have claimed that Fox was actually straight-up offered the role, having risen to immense fame after appearing in the first two "Transformers" movies, but turned it down. These claims are difficult to verify, but it's true that Fox was a popular fan cast for the role of Lara for many years.

If she did in fact turn down the role, there are plenty of good reasons why. Fox has been outspoken in more recent years about how harmful her "sex symbol" public image was to her mental health, explaining that the media coverage around her in her youth was incredibly harmful. Given the sexist nature of how the Lara Croft character was seen for so long, it would make sense if Fox wanted nothing to do with the part.

She's continued to be a staple in action-adventure genre fare, however, appearing in movies like "Jonah Hex" and the live-action "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" films, in addition to a number of smaller, more artistic films and some TV appearances.

Though both Megan Fox and Olivia Wilde were rumored to be the new Lara Croft after Angelina Jolie left the franchise, that "Tomb Raider" reboot failed to materialize altogether. Years later, a new batch of talks around the movie came onto the public's radar, this time with "Star Wars" alum Daisy Ridley being a potential choice for the lead. Ridley confirmed to Empire in 2016 that she'd been in conversations about starring in the reboot, saying, "Everyone seems to be very excited about the idea."

Just a year and a half later, though, those talks had apparently fallen through. When asked what the craziest rumor she'd ever heard about herself was in a 2017 interview with Vogue, Ridley replied, "That I was going to play Lara Croft in 'Tomb Raider.'" Given how open she had previously been about the role, it's unclear why this would have been so crazy. Regardless, the part ultimately went to Alicia Vikander.

Though Vikander did a great job in 2018's "Tomb Raider" reboot, it's easy to imagine Ridley in the role. Out of all the might-have-beens on this list, she's arguably the best fit for the character's more grounded modern incarnation.