Alicia Vikander Covers The March 2018 Issue Of Vogue US, Lensed By Steven Klein In 'Lara Croft' Interview

Swedish actor Alicia Vikander is styled by Tonne Goodman in her second Vogue US cover story. Vikander is set to play Lara Croft in the new 'Tomb Raider', lensed by Steven Klein for the March 2018 issue./ Makeup by Yadim; hair by Garren

Irina Aleksander interviews Vikander in 'How Alicia Vikander Transformed Into 'Tomb Raider’s' Lara Croft', starting off on the reboot of the 2001 film that ignited the career of Angelina Jolie.

It’s true—Vikander, a former ballerina with a petite frame and delicate old-world features, is an unlikely Croft, the digital embodiment of teen male fantasies from the game consoles of the 1990s. Croft may have been the first heroine of video games, but like most women, she had to endure the indignities that being first entailed: an exaggerated bust, a tiny waist, short shorts. In 2018, a year afterWonder Woman redefined the modern action heroine, Croft is more Olympic athlete than pinup. Gone are the short shorts and belly shirt, replaced with sensible cargo pants. Vikander concedes that she wore a lightly padded bra for the role, but that it was mostly to help her get into a character. “What little I have I kind of pushed up,” she says.

Vikander talks plenty about new husband Michael Fassbender and the roots they are sinking down in Portugal. Her experience with #MeToo is not as vivid as situations detailed by other women. The former ballet dancer says that powerful women have helped her in Hollywood. 

Julianne Moore made a vivid impression on her, coming to Vikander's defense when a powerful man made a cruel, boorish joke at her expense on the set of 'Seventh Son'. “I was really embarrassed, and I would have just laughed it off,” Vikander says. “But Julianne turned to him and said, ‘If you ever do that again, I’m walking out of here and I’m not coming back.’ ” Vikander’s eyes go glassy during this story. “She was just, like, Don’t you fucking say that again. It showed me that she had the power. And that meant so much to me.”

Situations like that one have brought Vikander into the company of fellow actors including Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, and Michelle Williams to support 'Time's Up', created to combat sexual misconduct and inequality in Hollywood, with the added bonanza of an increasingly large legal defense fund for working class women experiencing mistreatment and inequality outside of Hollywood. 

Instead of competing with each other for the few choice roles for aging women in Hollywood, the women are forging strong bonds and friendships.