Image Credit: Merrick Morton

Rooney Mara’s Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has won near-universal critical praise and turned her into one of Hollywood’s hottest young actresses. We sat down with her shortly before the film opened for a Q&A that’s running in the next EW, which hits newsstands this Friday. Here are some parts of the interview that we didn’t have room for in the magazine.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Last time we last talked you said one of the hardest scenes to shoot was the one where you’re in the subway and have to fight a guy who steals your computer. [At the time of this interview, Mara still hadn’t seen the finished film.] You spent three grueling 10-hour days doing nothing but running and fighting. In the movie that scene is over in a flash…
ROONEY MARA: Yeah, exactly. I’ve seen that scene because I had to do ADR [additional dialogue recording] for it, and it’s like, f—, that’s three days worth of work? That scene was not like that when I shot it. It’s hard to see [a film when it's finished], because you want to have your own memory and experience of it, and when the movie’s finished it’s never the same. It’s really scary to see yourself. I’m really hard on myself. You always look back and wish you’d done things differently. You see every little thing that other people don’t notice. It’s just a very weird experience. I always wish I can just go back and start over, reshoot the whole thing. You watch a scene and think, Oh I would have done that differently. I think David always feels that way too, which is maybe why we work well together. We would be reshooting until the end of the world if we could. [Laughs]

You’ve talked about being shy and liking to watch people more than being watched. Now you’re starting to get a sense of what this movie is going to do to your life. What’s it like so far?
I’m very grateful for all the opportunity it’s given me. I’m grateful to be able to continue to work with incredible directors and the material that’s coming my way is certainly much richer. The other part of it I haven’t really gotten a taste for, and I don’t really want a taste for it. So we’ll see when and if that happens how I feel about it. I don’t really like this [promotional] part of moviemaking.

You certainly picked the wrong line of work…
I know. [Laughs] Well, you know, this is a strange part of the job. But for the acting part I think being a wallflower is really helpful. I think observing people is part of the job, having an understanding for different people and how they act and react.

Fincher has described you as being “a weirdo.” What do you think he was talking about? READ FULL STORY »