Imagine actress Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) as a kickass action star in a blockbuster movie franchise. While it’s a role she’s dipped her toe in with Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, that doesn’t mean that it’ll never happen. In fact, at least one Hollywood filmmaker thinks she looks the part completely.
During an interview on The Tonight Show this week, Plaza told host Jimmy Fallon that her friend, writer, and director Edgar Wright (Baby Driver), thought she had been cast as the new Lara Croft, the female protagonist of the Tomb Raider media franchise when he saw the cover of an entertainment magazine.
In the first three Tomb Raider films, Lara Croft was played by Oscar winners Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted) and Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl). Now that MGM Studios has lost the rights to the franchise, most insiders believe that if another studio makes the fourth movie, a new lead will be cast.
Plaza told Fallon that when Wright saw the cover of the Summer 2022 issue of MovieMaker magazine, he thought Plaza was dressed as Croft.
“He saw [the magazine] and texted me and said, ‘Oh, my God, you’re the new Lara Croft?” Plaza said. “He genuinely thought I was cast as the new Tomb Raider.”
Instead, Plaza was featured on the cover for her latest film, Emily the Criminal, where she plays a woman who gets caught up in a life of crime, so she can pay off her student debt.
During Plaza’s story, Fallon held up a side-by-side comparison of Plaza’s character in her new movie and Jolie as Croft. Both were wearing white tops, but Plaza’s character carried a purse on her shoulder and not a holster.
Honestly, we can see why Wright made the error. In a white tank top, Plaza is a ringer for Croft. And why not? Let’s put it out there into the universe and strongly suggest that whichever studio decides to reboot Tomb Raider, they seriously consider Plaza for the title role.
We’re not the only ones who think it’s a great idea.
Watch The Tonight Show clip with Aubrey Plaza below.