Lara Croft may have raided tombs and fought mercenaries, beasts, and even eldritch gods, but this time she faces an unfamiliar one. A battle over her voice. French actress Françoise Cadol, the longtime voice of Tomb Raider‘s Lara Croft and Angelina Jolie’s official French dub, has launched legal action against Aspyr Media. According to French outlet Leparisien.fr, this was done after Tomb Raider 4-6 trilogy remaster was found to use an AI-generated voice modeled after hers without permission.
“Tomb Raider has been followed by a huge number of people over the years, for them it’s a betrayal, a total lack of respect. They’re angry and so am I,” Cadol told Leparisien, translated using DeepL. Cadol said she was alerted by ‘guardians of voices’ — fans — who noticed that the remastered Lara Croft sounded robotic but suspiciously like her.
She warns that AI cloning could gut France’s dubbing industry, which employs around 15,000 people, unless lawmakers act. “This is a total lack of respect for all actors. My voice belongs to me,” said Cadol, noting that she already opted out of any AI dataset usage.
Her lawyer, Jonathan Elkaim, described the AI voice as clearly built ‘from her timbre’ but lacking human nuance. “There’s a very strong metallic impact, it’s very choppy, without intonation,” Elkaim explained. “You can’t use someone’s voice without their consent, just as you can’t use their image.”
He issued a formal cease-and-desist, demanding that Aspyr pull the sale of the Tomb Raider 4-6 remaster over the AI voice cloning case. Leparisien added that the Italian, Brazilian, and Spanish dubs in the game may also be affected.
Tomb Raider 4-6 remaster was released on February 14, 2025, on consoles and PC, but received a major patch back in August. The Texas-based Aspyr Media is known for remastering various fan-favorite classics, including Legacy of Kain and Star Wars games.
At the time of writing, Aspyr has yet to respond to this allegation. Nevertheless, this incident highlights a growing trend in gaming, where publishers use generative AI to cut costs at the expense of creative labor.
