Lots of people grew up wanting to be Lara Croft. 25 years on since her debut in Tomb Raider, she still feels like the definitive video game heroine, and remains an archetypal ‘when I grow up, I want to be…’ figure. For Natalie Clarke, who then went by Natalie Cook, being Lara Croft was a reality. She was the original body model for the character, as well as being one of the official models who played Lara at various press events - and it all came about because of Snow White.

“I got a call from my agent saying ‘Someone’s looking for a Snow White, and they’re interested in you. You have blue eyes, but they really want to see you anyway’. So I went and I got the job, but they said, ‘Could you wear brown contact lenses?’, so I did. Then obviously, the role of Lara Croft came up, and it was the same situation there. My agent told me there was a part coming up to play this heroine of this new computer game. The only thing they were looking for was a model with brown eyes. But she said, ‘Why don't you do what you did with Snow White, and see what happens’. So the brown contact lenses have helped me quite a few times.”

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Clarke’s role as both the Lara behind the scenes and the Lara the public saw makes her a key figure in Tomb Raider history - but as is the way with history, it often gets replaced by something new, and Clarke jokes that the advancements in technology make her feel like she got “the raw end of the deal.”

“She's getting more and more beautiful each year,” Clarke says of Lara’s graphical evolution. “When I first did it, the graphics weren't amazing. So I must admit, when I used to have to go and do different photoshoots, they used to make me look completely different to what I looked like - which I suppose is their job. When I look at what she looks like now, some part of me does wish I played her later because her clothes are amazing. Like when I first did it, the shorts were not the greatest, and the top was just made of cotton. And then when the next model did it after me, which was Nell McAndrew, she had like the latex top, the nice sexy shorts - she had the whole gear. So I feel as though I'm sort of like the dummy run for all the next models.”

While sex appeal was a big part of Lara’s character, it was her strength, control, and confidence that made her into an icon. Plenty of women have been sexy on screen before, but few sat in the driving seat the way Lara did. Capturing this persona was a key part of Clarke's work.

“Lara was a very strong, powerful woman, who basically kicked arse,” Clarke says. “We were told that if guys came up to us, we had to be blunt. Not to be rude or offensive, but to just show them that I'm a strong independent woman and I don't take no shit from day one, basically. It was quite a nice role to take on because it felt really good. And in a strange way, the fans loved it. Because the more you were blunt and to the point, the more it was like playing hard to get.”

Clarke often worked with two other models when attending shows to promote the game, including a young Katie Price, pre-Jordan fame. The three of them had to instil this sense of confidence and control throughout the shows, and when it came to inspiration for strong women in the ‘90s, Clarke drew from the obvious choice. “You had the Spice Girls at the time, it was all about Girl Power,” she says. “And then Lara Croft came on the scene, another woman that was this powerful character the world had never seen before. I just feel really privileged to have been part of Lara Croft and to have been the first model that was cast. We were all in our own little areas [of the shows], running around and shooting at people. It was great! And it's a lovely memory to have and to pass on to my children and grandchildren.”

Of course, there are certain occupational hazards when it comes to playing Lara. “I have had quite a few marriage proposals in my time as Lara,” Clarke admits. “People were completely awestruck when I used to put the outfit on. They were so into the character. And I think they actually thought she was real, seeing a live model. They then start to believe that this is the real Lara Croft, which was so lovely to see [in] the faces of the fans.”

It’s not all kicking arse and marriage proposals though - being Lara Croft can be a dangerous business, and a bus driver is a far more effective nemesis in Clarke's career as Croft than a T-Rex ever was. “I was coming back from a job up north and I phoned my parents and said ‘Would you pick me up from the station? I've just finished a Lara Croft job’,” Clarke explains. “I got in the car. And when we got to the traffic lights, my dad said ‘Show me one of those guns that you have to use for Lara’. So I took it out and he sat at the traffic lights looking at this gun. Well, they dropped me home, then two hours later there's a knock at the door. And it's my mum and dad with four police with them. The police said ‘we have a warrant to search your home, can we come in?’ and what they were looking for were the guns. When we were at the traffic lights, unbeknownst to us, a bus driver had seen my dad and reported him to the police. They had armed police at the door because my dad fitted a description of a wanted man and they didn't believe my dad when he said his daughter was Lara Croft. So they had to be police-escorted to my house, and the police ransacked everywhere. I showed them pictures of me as Lara Croft and they believed me in the end.”

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