# Lara Croft’s Inaugural Voice Actor Shelley Blond Recalls First Time She Saw ‘Tomb Raider’ Character: ‘I Thought She Was Very Sexy and Very Ballsy’

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/lara-crofts-inaugural-voice-actor-shelley-blond-recalls-first-time-she-saw-tomb-raider-character-i-thought-she-was-very-sexy-and-very-ballsy/
- Published: 2026-10-23T12:06:42+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-23T12:11:49+00:00
- Original publisher: Variety
- Original article: https://variety.com/2026/digital/global/lara-croft-shelley-blond-voice-actor-audition-tomb-raider-1236922413/
- Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment, Europe, Gaming, World

## Key points

- Shelley Blond was Lara Croft’s first voice actor.
- She described the character as sexy and bold.
- The 1996 game’s creators did not expect its lasting success.

## Summary

Shelley Blond, the first voice of Lara Croft, says she immediately saw the character as “very sexy and very ballsy” when she was sent a rough picture before auditioning. Her account looks back at the creation of a character who helped make Tomb Raider a global hit and remains a major figure in games and screen adaptations three decades later.

Blond landed the role in 1995, when she was a new voice actor and it was only her second professional job. She auditioned by recording lines on a cassette recorder and mailing them in, then repeated them on a conference call; the team wanted a delivery like a female James Bond or Indiana Jones. The game’s creators were unsure how an adult-focused game would perform, and Blond says none of them expected Lara to become globally iconic.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.