“Fleabag” creator/star Phoebe Waller-Bridge is about to get a whole new level of exposure for her role as Indiana Jones’ goddaughter Helena Shaw in this week’s release of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”.
The playwright, writer, producer and actress, Waller-Bridge has become much sought after for her deft touch with character work in scripts and her idiosyncratic sense of humor.
Her next big gig is developing a live-action Amazon series adaptation of the classic “Tomb Raider” video game franchise, and in an interview with Vanity Fair this week she discussed how it’s going.
Though the series is currently on hold due to the writer’s strike, Waller-Bridge says she was working hard on the property and is a true fan:
“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. I packed the PlayStation away, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to not do that because I’ve got to write and read and do other stuff.'”
Her love for the character stayed with her: “She had an attitude. She was very deliberate in what she wanted to do”. She spoke about how she remembers the game’s atmosphere and also an unfortunate time when: “That all changed when they realized that they could market her to be a sex symbol.” Asked if she hesitated to participate in a reboot/remake she says it’s a great opportunity to bring in something different:
“I feel like when you’re working in the industry, you’ve got to ride the waves and lean in. 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.”
She also reveals that Lara’s bustline, one of the more talked about and controversial aspects of the original games, has become a heated topic in the Tomb Raider writer’s room:
“She’s a tomb raider, so she’s incredibly fit. She has to squeeze through tiny rock crevices all the time. It is a different experience squeezing through a small rock crevice when you have larger b–bs than if you have smaller b–bs.”
She also indicates we shouldn’t expect the series to address cultural politics directly as she finds such heavy-handedness dull:
“There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re being lectured when you were promised a party. There are lots of shows out there that don’t hide the lesson that they’re trying to teach us. And they get boring quite quickly.”
In addition to “Tomb Raider,” she has been developing other series, including the black comedy “Sign Here,” and hopes to get back to work on a play. Though she’s spearheading the series behind-the-scenes, Waller-Bridge is not expected to star in the new “Tomb Raider”.
