Original Tomb Raider Director On Angelina Jolie Casting Troubles

As fans wait for the gritty reboot of Tomb Raider, which is also based on a gritty reboot that happened in the character's video games, some fans have decided to reminisce about the first film. Starring Angelina Jolie, many wouldn't call it a "good" movie but it was fun and didn't take itself too seriously, making it a decent enough watch, though fans have mixed opinions about the sequel.

What will surprise fans of Jolie's adventures as Lara Croft is that director Simon West had a difficult time convincing Paramount Pictures that the actress was perfect for the role.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, West explained that having a Tomb Raider film was an uphill battle in its own right, let alone casting Jolie. Despite films like Alien having female leads, audiences still weren't accustomed to women in action roles, often resulting in bombs like Tank Girl and Barb Wire.

Jolie is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood now but back then, she was still a wild card that audiences had a hard time wrapping their heads around. Though she won an Oscar, the actress was often caught doing wild and weird things in public like making out with her own brother, which made her less than marketable. Apparently, Paramount wanted names like Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ashley Judd, and Jennifer Lopez for the Tomb Raider role.

"There hadn't been a female lead of an action-adventure film that had carried a film [by herself recently], and Angelina wasn't as big as some of the other actresses that were up for the part, who'd done bigger films and had a longer track record and bigger box-office grosses. … Some of their [images] were safer than Angelina's, whose was quite dangerous. She had all sorts of thing written about her—some obviously not true. She was a young woman experimenting."

It turns out Jolie ended up being perfect for the role and the first Tomb Raider made a ton of money. While the second film, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, wasn't as successful it still made money, though Jolie would later back out of any future sequels.

Tomb Raider (2018) comes out on March 16.

Read:Alicia Vikander Disappointed By Lack Of Women In Tomb Raider Reboot