Rooney Mara nearly quit acting after ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’
In a new interview, Rooney Mara revealed that after having a nightmare filming the 2010 A Nightmare On Elm Street reboot, she almost ended her acting career.
Fortunately, the esteemed actor stuck it out and has since earned two Oscar nominations and married Her co-star Joaquin Phoenix. During a recent appearance on the LaunchLeft podcast, Mara remembered working on Samuel Bayer’s Nightmare on Elm Street as “not a good experience.” Adding that she wasn’t “going to act anymore” unless she felt completely sure about a project.
“A few years before [The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo], I had done [the] A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, which was not a good experience. I have to be careful with what I say and how I talk about it. It wasn’t the best experience making it.”
“And, I kind of got to this place, that I still live in, that I don’t want to act unless I’m doing stuff that I feel like I have to do. So after making that film, I kind of decided, ‘OK, I’m just not going to act anymore unless it’s something that I feel that way about’.”
Later in the interview, Mara revealed that David Fincher helped her to get back into acting and enjoy her craft again. The Fight Club director cast Mara in The Social Network and then went on to work with her again in 2011 for the Daniel Craig-featuring blockbuster, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
“I got an audition for The Social Network, which was a small part, but it was an amazing scene, and then I didn’t work again from that until I think Dragon Tattoo,” Mara continued. “David didn’t want to audition me for it because he didn’t think I was right for it based on what I did in The Social Network.
“I kind of insisted they put me on tape anyway, so I did, and then he had to fight really hard for me to get the part because the studio didn’t want me for it. It was a definite real turning point in my life and my career.”
Mara now credits Fincher for “empowering” her within Hollywood and said working with him changed how she approached the business “David really took me under his wing. He became my mentor in a lot of ways,” she added. “He took such great care to make sure that I knew that I had a voice and that my opinion meant something. He constantly was empowering me, which I think really affected the rest of my choices thereafter.”
Watch the official trailer for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo below.
