Angelina Jolie did a tremendous job playing Lara Croft and bringing the iconic video game character to life. While Lara Croft: Tomb Raider helped Jolie become an established action genre star. The Maleficent actress perfectly portrayed the fictional character, making her shine throughout the movie.
However, as is with almost every other Jolie movie, the set of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider wasn’t free from problems. A therapist hired to overlook Jolie on set was fired after his problematic actions and s*xual assault allegations.
Angelina Jolie’s Therapist Was Fired After His Disturbing Actions
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’s Director, Simone West was worried about Angelina Jolie playing the famous video game character. Feeling that she would be the perfect person for the role, West really wanted to make sure that everything goes smoothly for Jolie. And hence he hired Bobby Klein, a therapist, and a former photographer to help Jolie out on the sets.
Thanks to Angelina Jolie’s notorious reputation and wild lifestyle, the studio hired Klein to keep a watch on her all the time. However, his presence was unwelcome on set. The movie’s producer Larry Gordon once recounted,
“‘He’s going to be a big help, and he’s going to do all these great things,’ and so on and so forth… He wanted her to have milk baths and started talking about yoga and meditation and wanted to be the point person in charge of Angelina’s training. It was just this bullsh*t. It seemed like spiritual hokum.”
And soon, Klein turned out to be just as shady as everyone else predicted, after being accused of s*xually harassing Simone West’s assistant. Gordon recalled firing Klein,
“I said, ‘Angelina doesn’t want you around, and I never wanted you around, so your as* is gone. You can get your sh*t and go, or I can get security to throw you off the lot. You decide.”
And thus, Angelina Jolie and the rest were freed from the predicament called Bobby Klein.
Angelina Jolie’s Extreme Work Ethic For Lara Croft
In spite of all the challenges, Jolie was determined to prove everyone false. She readily transformed her lifestyle to become the perfect Lara Croft. The Eternals star took to canoeing, kickboxing, yoga, and street-fighting to challenge herself physically. Talking about her diet during the shoot, she said,
“I ate steamed sea bass or steamed beef and vegetables, and I had no sugar and only drank soy milk.”
However, it wasn’t easy for her to play the challenging role since the shoot left her with multiple physical injuries. Despite the many injuries, Jolie still enjoyed portraying the character very much.
“I got every different possible injury. But what I liked about playing Lara was the things I got to do. I got dirty, scratched and burnt—but those were great problems to have, because I felt like I was actually her in a certain way.”
And thanks to her hard work, the movie became an instant hit, grossing a total of $274 million worldwide.
You can stream Lara Croft: Tomb Raider on HBO Max.
Source: E-News
