Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Rising Stars: Rooney Mara

By s. Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Rooney Mara was born on April 17th 1985. She is one of four children of NFL football team New York Giants executive Timothy Christopher Mara and Kathleen McNulty, the granddaughter of Art Rooney, Sr., the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise. Her paternal grandfather was Giants founder Tim Mara. As a child Rooney did not want to be an actress but later on in her life, inspired by old movies she took a risk and started to appear in films. Her first film was Urban Legends: Bloody Mary where she starred with her older sister Kate (127 hours, Brokeback Mountain).

She starred in David Fincher's The Social Network as Erica Albricht, Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend who breaks up with him in the film's opening scene. Though her performance was quite short, Mara was impressive enough there was even some Oscar buzz surrounding her work. For me the look of hurt, pain, shame and betrayal on Erica's face in one of the beginning scenes of the film is simply unforgettable.
Fincher chose Mara to play the much coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in his version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, though Mara doesn't believe he did so because of her work in The Social Network, where she spent only four days on the set:
AWARDSLINE: Any idea what it was that made David Fincher decide you were the one to play Lisbeth?

MARA: I don’t know. Initially he didn’t want to see me. I had just finished Social Network and I was something completely different in that. I am all the things in that movie that Salander was not. So it was hard for him to wrap his head around the notion that I could be this other girl. I think when he saw me the first time [for Lisbeth], it dawned on him that I could be. I’m not sure what it is he saw in me that made him know that I could be the girl. I think he was trying to find someone who at their core had a lot in common with this girl.

For the role of Salander, Mara’s eyebrows were bleached, her hair was cut short and asymmetric, while her eyebrow, ears, and nipple were pierced. She also spent nearly a year in Sweden preparing for the film and filming the footage. Mara's spectacular performance earned her Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination, among many others.

Her feature projects include Untitled Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze Project where she will star opposite Joaquim Phoenix and Amy Adams, Terrence Mallick's Lawless, Steven Soderbergh's Bitter Pill and possibly the sequels for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" - though Mara has expressed the desire to star in them and said it would be great for them to be shot at the same time, there is still no official word from Sony.

Though she has some weaker moments in her career - as the role in horrible "The Nightmare on Elm Street" her work in Fincher's movies is stunning. As Lisbeth Salander she brought in such incredible magnetism and charisma with her performance, also hiding a hint of compassion and the sense of justice - she captured the very essence of her character. That's not something that can be said about many actors.
On the set of The Bitter Pill
With Ryan Gosling on the set of Lawless

30 comments:

  1. She's someone I'm really interested in after seeing her in The Social Network and then knock me out in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I hope she will rise up and keep giving us kick-ass performances.

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    1. Me too but what I hope for the most are the sequels for GWTDT.

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  2. I absolutely love Rooney Mara. I think she is one of the most beautiful people ever, and she's also extremely talented. Her performance in The Social Network is my favourite of all the performances in the film. And she was amaaaaaaazing in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She's just awesome!

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    1. She really is, but for some reason I think she looks even more beautiful as Lisbeth than as herself.

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  3. Extremely love her! Great actress and I find her to be incredibly hot. In some ways, she kind of resembles Audrey Hepburn to my eyes.

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    1. She does indeed! Looks almost like her in certain pictures.

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  4. After seeing her in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I'm definitely on-board the Rooney Mara bandwagon. She was very impressive in the movie, especially given her young age.

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    1. I was blown away that she created such nuanced performance without much acting experience.

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  5. Great spotlight! It's so bizarre to take a look at her past work after becoming so familiar with her as Lisbeth Salander. She really is a talented actress.

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    1. Yeah, she is quite unrecognizable when she is just normal self. I hope her work in Bitter Pill won't disappoint it looks like a great material for a movie.

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  6. She is just stunning. Long back, when my world sort of revolved around Tom Sturridge, he had done this photoshoot with her as part of some "rising actors" thing and I never knew who she was but I was completely in awe of how beautiful she was.

    She is one of the best things about TSN. And her as Lisbeth- phew! Ahmazing. I prefer her crazy Lisbeth to Rapace's in every way. Can't wait to see her in all of her upcoming stuff.

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    1. I liked Rapace's work and she is a fantastic actress but honestly what Mara did was so much better and more complex.

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  7. It's pretty amazing how much she has transformed over the photos you have put above. From her look in the first photos, I can see why Fincher must have been a little bit concerned she couldn't pull off Salander. Still haven't seen TGWTDT remake but interested to see if Mara can top Rapace.

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    1. Oh you should see it! She is amazing, in fact I think her work is in my top 5 of best female performances ever.

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  8. I am going to say this.... I am going to get flamed. But I am not really a fan. I am sure she is great, and I will come around. But I am just an old fuddy duddy and Dragon Tattoo didn't do it for me at all..... Sorry

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    1. No problem, I'm the same with Chloe Moretz. People rave about her and I have no idea why :)

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  9. Wow. No idea she came from a football family.

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  10. Cool feature! I was crazy about Rooney Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and how cute was her reaction when she saw her clip at the Oscars! I hope she'll be one of the big stars of the future.

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    1. I think with start like that her future is secure :)

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  11. She's magnetic, I couldn't take my eyes off of her in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lawless will have unbearable levels of style, Rooney and Gosling? I can't even imagine, so awesome.

    I didn't know that Kate was her sister, how nice!

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    1. They are my favorite Hollywood sisters right after Farmigas and Fannings :)

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  12. She's gorgeous, just like her sister. But what's funny is that I feel like I don't know her yet. She wore a mask as Salander, really. I never got the chance to see her real face yet (except for a glimpse in The Social Network) or peek inside of her personality. I cannot WAIT for Malick's Lawless. That thing looks so damn sexy.

    She's certainly on a meteoric rise!

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    1. Absolutely. I'm glad she has so many interesting projects lined up.

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  13. She blew me away in Dragon Tattoo. Just the lengths she went to as an actress for the role. Amazing.

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    1. Exactly, I can't belive some of her piercings were real, that really had to be painful.

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  14. I've only seen her in The Social Network, but she was quite good in that even with her brief screen time. She has a unique fashion style, too.

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    1. Oh, absolutely - I love all the clothes she worn in Oscar season.

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  15. Great coverage, I love Rooney Mara, she will really go places as her career continues. Have you seen Dare? She had a brief but memorable role in that.

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    1. I didn't see this one, but I will need to - I was checking out her films ever since I saw her in Dragon Tattoo.

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