Rooney Mara says she almost quit acting after ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’
Rooney Mara has said that working on the A Nightmare On Elm Street remake in 2010 almost ended her acting career.
The actor, who has gone on to be nominated for two Oscars since, said that making the Samuel Bayer led film was “not a good experience”. Mara went on to tell LaunchLeft podcast [as per IndieWire] that she wasn’t “going to act anymore” unless she felt a certain way about a project.
She told the podcast: “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’.”
Moving the story on, she revealed that it was David Fincher that helped her to persevere in the industry. The Social Network director cast Mara in the 2010 movie, and then went on to work with her in smash-hit The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Mara said: “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. 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.”
Despite those initial wobbles with Fincher, Mara credits Fincher for “empowering” her within Hollywood. She explained that working with the director on both films changed how she viewed the acting business, saying: “David really took me under his wing. He became my mentor in a lot of ways.
“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.”
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JJ Nattrass
NME
