12:32pm UK, Wednesday July 04, 2001

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie had to give up cigarettes and alcohol to transform herself into the cyberbabe Lara Croft.

She admitted sneaking some cigarettes under her pillow during the first week of filming Tomb Raider - but said on the whole she stuck to the discipline.

Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft

Kick-boxing

"When I was training so hard, I wanted healthy things," she said. Cigarettes and alcohol were banned, and she was asked not to drink coffee to 'keep her energy constant'.

Jolie underwent a rigorous training regime which included kick-boxing, canoeing and weapons training to bring computer game heroine Lara Croft to life.

"I really had no idea how popular she was and how much pressure I was taking on," she said in an interview today. "If I had any idea, I might not have done it."

From C to DD

But getting fit wasn't the only thing to help turn Jolie into Lara Croft - an archaeologist who gets involved in an Indian Jones-style adventure. She had to have padding to turn her C-cup into Lara's DD-cup.

At last night's UK premiere of Tomb Raider, Jolie was cheekily upstaged by the woman who originally posed as Lara Croft. Hollywood bosses had tried to ban model Nell McAndrew from the premiere fearing she would upstage their star.

And their worst fears were realised when McAndrew arrived in a revealing purple rubber dress - cutting a vibrant figure beside Jolie's demure black Dolce and Gabbana trouser suit.