Rooney Mara discusses THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - Rape Scene, Poster, and Auditioning

David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is one of my most anticipated films of the year. Fincher is an incredible director, and the story is amazing. Although I enjoyed the original Swedish film adaptations, I think Fincher's version is going to be much better, more hardcore, and truer to the source material. 

Rooney Mara was the lucky talented young actress that landed the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in the story, and so far it looks like she deserved it. She looks great in the role, and at this point, from what I've seen, there's no doubt she's going to blow up on screen. This is just one of those roles that screams Oscar nomination, and with Fincher leading her into battle she just might get one. 

In a recently interview with EW Mara talked about the project, her experiences auditioning for the role, the controversial topless movie poster and the crazy rape scene that they had to film. Here's what she had to say...

On her last meeting with Fincher after two-plus months of auditioning:

At that point I was just super frustrated. I was like, ‘You have to decide. Either you think I’m the girl or you don’t. There’s not much more I can do to prove it to you.’ I went in there sort of ready to fight. I was pissed. But David sat me down and gave me this long speech about the part. Then he handed me his iPad, and it had the press release on it. He said, ‘I’m prepared to send this out. You have half an hour to let me know if you want the part.’

On the controversial poster, which features Mara topless: 

I was supportive of it. I understand why there was a lot of controversy. People have a hard time with strong females and with nudity. But I think had I been doing something incredibly violent on the poster, people wouldn’t have had a problem with it. That sort of says a lot about the world that we live in. It’s just a teaser poster. I think it did just that. It teased people.

On filming the book’s notoriously harrowing rape scene: 

It was incredibly intense. We did it all in a week — the week of Valentine’s Day, oddly enough. We were working 16 hours a day, and it was really, really challenging, not just emotionally but physically. But it’s such an important scene. We wanted to do everything we could to get that right.

The movie is based on the first Stieg Larsson's novel of the The Millennium Trilogy, and it also stars Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen and Joely Richardson.

What are your thoughts on what Mara had to say, and how excited are you excited for this movie?