Lebanese actress and businesswoman Nadine Wilson Njeim is all set to return as the Arabic voice of Lara Croft in the upcoming action-adventure video game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Njeim, who first voiced the character in 2013 for Rise of the Tomb Raider, will swing back into action in September as part of a fully localised version of the game. This time, she’s racing to save the world from a Mayan apocalypse.
“On an emotional level, you feel that Lara has become a grown woman with a lot of internal struggles — sadness, pain, anger, jealousy, fury, self-resentment, self-exploration. All of these things you go through in your own life, in a different situation, she’s going through now,” said Njeim.
A self-proclaimed gamer, Njeim visited the Gulf News offices on Thursday morning to chat about becoming Croft. The multi-faceted TV host, entrepreneur and actress, who stepped into the spotlight in 2007 as the winner of Miss Lebanon, saw herself in the character.
“Let’s just say we’re not too girlie, the both of us,” she said, adding that they shared several beliefs, such as “being an independent woman, fighting for yourself and conquering the world.”
“At its own base, Lara is a feminist, because she wants to reach her goal, and she can do it on her own. Nothing can stop her. That’s a similarity I have and a lot of other Arab women have [with her],” said Njeim.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider releases on September 14.
