It took Rooney Mara two and a half months and five screen tests to land the sought-after role of Lisbeth Salander.
The competition for the fierce heroine of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” included some of the biggest names in Hollywood. The director, David Fincher, is well known for his extreme attention for detail — which Mara had witnessed firsthand in her small but memorable performance in his “The Social Network.” He shot her largest scene, the opening verbal volley between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his girlfriend (Mara), in 99 takes.
Rooney Mara is nothing short of amazing in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” There’s the slew of stuff she did to get in character: the piercings, the hair bleaching and dying, the tattoos. On screen, it comes together in a chilling, sharp portrayal of Lisbeth Salander, hacker extraordinaire, insane by her own admission and, to paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson, a badass motherf***er.
Reporting from New York City — — In a pleated white dress, her jet-black bangs neatly trimmed, Golden Globe nominee Rooney Mara looks nothing like Lisbeth Salander as she relaxes in the drawing room of New York's Crosby Street Hotel. But it doesn't take long for the 26-year-old to show the resolve that helped land her the coveted lead role in the U.S. version of Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," vaulting over a scrum of top Hollywood actresses. Mara previously was best known for her opening tête-à-tête with Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network." Now, her multiply-pierced face as the fierce hacker is everywhere. The piercings in her eyebrow and ears are gone now — though she has said one other, seen in a topless teaser poster released earlier this year, is still in place — but there's plenty of steel still in her even and unflinching gaze.
