Walton Goggins discusses ‘Tomb Raider’ villain role as ‘confused, angry and desperate’
With a career packed full of roles, especially as a villain, the former Justified star Boyd Crowder will not take on the antagonist role in the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot. While speaking with Christina Radish about his upcoming History Channel series Six (which premieres January 18th), Goggins opened up about the role alongside Alicia Vikander.
“I’m just so excited about it! I’m such a big fan of Alicia and this director, Roar [Uthaug]. Quite honestly, the script feels like it’s already been in the world, in some ways. The structure and the foundation of this story is so solid and so interesting. It’s so unbelievably entertaining, and yet it’s real in the journey that it takes you on. And this person that I get to play is confused and angry and desperate. I’m just looking forward to getting in his head. I’m really, really, really excited about it.”
Goggins then talked about what it is about villain roles that he finds so appealing, and he provided a thoughtful breakdown of how he goes about choosing any role, whether the character is good or evil.
“…I just go where the work is and where people are extremely passionate about telling their story and where they’re capable filmmakers, no matter how long they’ve been doing it. It’s about whether they understand what it is that they’re asking themselves to do and whether they really want to say something. That’s always been my motivation.”
Goggins continued: “This thing that I did after Six, Three Christs, I don’t know if there’s an antagonist in the bunch. Maybe schizophrenia is the antagonist, or maybe it’s how we view those that aren’t like ourselves. Maybe that’s the antagonist. It was just an incredible opportunity. And Tomb Raider is an incredible opportunity. People have only seen the first season of Vice Principals, but when you see where the show goes, there’s so much more than whether or not those are bad guys. That’s what I’m interested in playing, regardless of what side he’s on. I’ve had some opportunities lately to play the hero, and they just haven’t been about the right thing. They haven’t spoken to me, in that way. But Six certainly did, and Three Christs did, and lord knows that Tomb Raider did.”
Fans are repeatedly disappointed by video game adaptations, with Assassin’s Creed in theaters now, disappointing audiences.
No other cast has been announced.
Uthaug has been praised for The Wave, a solid adventure film and 2012’s Escape.
Tomb Raider opens March 16, 2018.
