Phoebe Waller-Bridge Says Her ‘Tomb Raider’ Series Will ‘Bring Back Some of That ’90s Vibe’

Dessi Gomez
·2 min read
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Phoebe Waller-Bridge feels like her recent stint in action films has prepared her for adapting the “Tomb Raider” video game for Amazon Prime Video.

“The opportunity to have, as we were talking earlier, a female action character…. Having worked on Bond and having worked as an actor on ‘Indy’, I feel like I’ve been building up to this,’ she told Vanity Fair. “What if I could take the reins on an action franchise, with everything I’ve learned, with a character I adore, and also just bring back some of that ’90s vibe? It’s such a wonderful feeling to think you know what to do.”

Waller-Bridge spoke with Vanity Fair in April before joining the Writers Guild of America strike, which recently reached its 50th consecutive day. She played “Tomb Raider” as a teenager, remembering the game’s main character Lara Croft well.

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“God, it literally felt like that teenager in me saying: Do right by her, do right by Lara! She had an attitude. She was very deliberate in what she wanted to do,” she said. “That all changed when they realized that they could market her to be a sex symbol.”

She also recalled how addicted to the game she got before she “packed the PlayStation away” for other creative pursuits.

“My parents were very smart because they didn’t actually limit me. They could sense that I was going to just game myself into the ground, and I did,” she says. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to not do that because I’ve got to write and read and do other stuff.’”

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Ultimately, she sees “Tomb Raider” as a chance to break the mold in a repetitive industry culture of recycles and reboots.

“I feel like when you’re working in the industry, you’ve got to ride the waves and lean in,” she said. “There’s room to do something really quite dangerous, and if I can do something dangerous and exciting with ‘Tomb Raider,’ I already have an audience of people who love Lara and hopefully will continue to. And that is a very unusual position to be in. It’s the old Trojan horse.”