It was a bit awkward when Aubrey Plaza received a text message from her filmmaker friend Edgar Wright congratulating her on landing the coveted role of Lara Croft in the next Tomb Raider movie, as she hadn’t actually been cast for the part. These days, Plaza can be seen in the new film Emily the Criminal which features the Parks and Recreation star as a woman saddled with debt who gets involved in a credit card scam.
In promotion of Emily the Criminal, Plaza was featured in her titular role on the cover of MovieMaker Magazine. She happens to resemble Lara Croft in the image, and that managed to capture Wright’s attention. As Plaza tells the story to Jimmy Fallon during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show, Wright had even texted her an excited congratulatory message before finding out that the image wasn’t for a Tomb Raider movie.
“My friend, Edgar Wright, actually saw that and texted me and said, ‘Oh my god, you’re the new Lara Croft? You’re the new Tomb Raider?’ And I was like, ‘No, Edgar, that’s my movie Emily the Criminal.’ He genuinely thought I was cast as the new Tomb Raider.”
Coincidentally, it was just recently revealed that the next Tomb Raider movie will introduce someone new in the role after MGM lost the film rights to the video game. Because it turns out that casting for that role just so happens to be underway, Plaza teases that the potential casting just might work out after all.
“It’s funny because I didn’t…
