Rooney Mara

Patricia Rooney Mara 

17 April 1985

 An American actress. After graduating from Fox Lane High School in 2003, she went to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in South America for four months as part of the Traveling School, an open learning environment. She attended George Washington University for a year and then transferred to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she studied psychology, international social policy and nonprofits, graduating in 2010.

Mara first appeared as an extra in films which starred her sister, including a bit-part in the 2005 direct-to-video horror film "Urban Legends: Bloody Mary". She found work in television, making her professional debut in a 2006 episode of the drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", as a girl who bullies overweight children. She guest-starred on the legal drama "Women's Murder Club" in 2007 and played a drug addict in an episode of "The Cleaner" in 2008. Mara made her feature film debut "Dream Boy" in 2008 and guest-starred as Megan for two episodes of NBC's "ER" in 2009.

In August 2010, Mara was cast as the lead in a film adaptation of the "Millennium" book trilogy by Stieg Larsson. She played Lisbeth Salander, a damaged punk computer hacker who helps journalist Mikael Blomkvist attempt to solve a series of murders. Mara won the role over several other actresses after two and a half months of auditions and screen tests. David Fincher directed the first film, based on the novel "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", with Scott Rudin producing. Fincher initially did not picture her as the character but changed his mind when she auditioned.

As actress

• Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006)
• Women's Murder Club (2007)
• The Cleaner (2008)
• Dream Boy (2008)
• Dare (2009)
• ER (2009)
• The Winning Season (2009)
• Friends (With Benefits) (2009)
• Youth in Revolt (2009
• Tanner Hall (2009)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
• The Social Network (2010)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
• Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)
• Side Effects (2013)
• Her (2013)
• Trash (2014)
• Carol (2015)
• Pan (2015)
• Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
• Una (2016)
• Lion (2016)
• The Secret Scripture (2016)
• The Discovery (2017)
• A Ghost Story (2017)
• Song to Song (2017)
• Mary Magdalene (2017)

Quotations

* * *

I am very slow to warm. I've always been sort of a loner. I didn't play team sports. I am better one-on-one than in big groups.

* * *

I can understand wanting to be invisible and mistrusting people and wanting to understand everything before you engage with the world.

* * *

My sister started acting professionally when she was twelve, but I wanted to go to college first.

* * *

There were certainly things I was scared to do, but I never thought I wasn't up for the challenge.

* * *

If there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking. Also, the people whom I grew up with all did things they really loved. And I think that's an important lesson.

* * *

The more people know about you, the less they can project who you are supposed to be. It's unfortunate that you really only get one shot at that.

* * *

I always wanted to be an actor, but I was always fighting it. It never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail.

* * *

I've been trying to really live in the moment because I will never get this part of it back. As soon as the movie comes out, everyone will turn it into what they believe it is, so I've really been trying to appreciate every minute of now. Because I know what's coming.

* * *