Rooney Mara is an incredible actor. She’s been in tons of stuff that you’ve probably loved, and she’s been nominated for two Oscars too.
You might also remember that she starred in the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street that came out back in 2010.
Well, it turns out that the experience of making that film was enough to briefly convince Rooney that she should quit acting completely.
In a new interview for the LaunchLeft podcast, Rooney said that filming A Nightmare on Elm Street wasn’t a “good experience.”
She also said that she has “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.”
“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.’”
Rooney also explained that when she met director David Fincher while starring in the classic 2010 film The Social Network, she changed her mind about her career trajectory.
“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,” she explained.
“David didn’t want to audition me for [Dragon Tattoo] because he didn’t think I was right for it based on what I did in The Social Network and 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.”
Rooney went on to say that, during the year-long process of making Dragon Tattoo, Fincher became her “mentor” and inspired her to continue on with her acting career.
“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.”
Listen to the entire interview here.
