The 26-year-old Rooney Mara is currently taking Hollywood by storm with her starring role as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.

Directed by David Fincher, with whom Mara previously worked on 2010’s “The Social Network”, ‘Dragon Tattoo’ is the English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Swedish-language novel of the same name. It centres around Mara’s character, Lisbeth Salander, and Daniel Craig’s character, Mikael Blomkvist, and has already been nominated for Best Picture by the Producers Guild of America.

However, the true success story in this film lies with Rooney Mara, who has so far received Golden Globe and National Board of Review nominations for her performance; and is already experiencing early Oscar buzz. This film is by no means Mara’s introduction into the entertainment industry – she has made numerous television guest appearances in recent years, ranging from an assault victim “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to a patient in two episodes of “ER”.

Yet with her latest film, Rooney Mara has entered into a new level of celebrity. Not only has she received numerous accolades and been cast alongside Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchette in the upcoming drama “Lawless;” but she has also experienced her first dose of media backlash.

In a recent interview with Allure, Mara referred to her “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” appearance as:

“[S]o awful. So stupid. People are obsessed with that show. I don’t get it. It’s ridiculous … they sodomized [my character]. I mean, I’ve been sodomized since the beginning of my career. I should have known then it would come full circle.”

Mara was later forced to release a statement clarifying her words, explaining to The Huffington Post that:

“That was my first job. It couldn’t have been more exciting for me. It’s an experience I hold very dear to my heart. People take things out of context, and that’s just not the case. I was more nervous doing that job than I was doing this job … I know that ‘Law & Order’ makes their episodes out of real things that are happening in the city, so to me, by “ridiculous” I meant that humanity is ridiculous. People are awful to one another; and to me, I find it ridiculous.”

Rooney Mara is by no means the first young actress to insist that she was misquoted in an interview, but it does show that her ‘celebrity’ status has reached the point where the public are paying attention to what she does, says, wears and chooses as her next project.

Regarding her next project, aside from the completion of “Lawless,” Mara does not have anything officially greenlit into production; however, she is contracted to reprise her role as Lisbeth Salander in the potential second and third films in Sony’s series.

What remains to be seen for the time being is how Rooney Mara fares in awards season. The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards are set to be announced on January 24th, and plenty of eyes are sure to be on Mara as she competes to make it into the Academy’s final shortlist for Best Actress. For Rooney Mara, 2012 could soon become the year for ‘The Girl with the Infinite Opportunities’.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/DragonTattoo

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About the author

Stephen Conlon
Postgraduate student, Apple geek.