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’
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.
In short
- 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.
Explained simply
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game series built around Lara Croft, an archaeologist who explores ancient sites and faces dangers along the way. The first game was released in 1996, when home gaming was reaching a wider audience.
Lara’s image and voice helped define the series, and Shelley Blond was the first actor to voice her. Blond took the role in 1995, before the game’s release; later games and screen adaptations introduced Lara to new audiences.
The series became a long-running entertainment franchise, making Lara one of gaming’s best-known characters. Its early success helped show that video game characters could become widely recognised beyond the people who played the games.
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