Alicia Vikander could lift her own weight after Tomb Raider training

Actress Alicia Vikander discovered a whole new feeling of empowerment as she trained for the new Tomb Raider reboot after she was able to lift her own weight.

The Jason Bourne star had her work cut out for her as she prepared to tackle her biggest action role yet as heroine Lara Croft, with the slender beauty having to pack on the pounds and then turn it all into muscle.

"(I was) bulking up quite a lot a first, and then trying to just, like, tone down," she explains to ELLE magazine of her revamped diet and work out regimen.

Luckily, Alicia was able to draw elements from her background as a former ballerina to help with her training - and it all soon paid off.

"I've never done action scenes on this level - not even close," the 28-year-old shares. "It feels like I'm back to dancing - the training, the intensity. You need to be aware of your movement up in the (stunt) wires and how your body works. I've never been able to lift my own weight, and the day when you have that capacity, it's pretty empowering!"

The Oscar winner takes over the role of the video game icon from Angelina Jolie, who previously brought Lara to life in director Simon West's original 2001 movie adaptation.

This time around, Alicia worked with Roar Uthaug, the filmmaker behind 2015 tsunami thriller The Wave, and her death-defying stunts were really something to be proud of.

"Just like in The Wave, we have a lot of water sequences," Alicia told Entertainment Weekly last month (Jul17). "I spent my last two days of shooting in a tank and that was my 16th total day being fully drenched or submerged in the water.

"For one action scene, we used the London venue for Olympic rafting. They threw me down that river - with my hands tied - about 50 times. I didn't need to act, just react!"

Tomb Raider is set for release in March, 2018.