Rooney Mara
A busy girl, a very big talent
It’s big year for Rooney Mara. Starting in March, she’s appearing in a string of very impressive films, each with an impeccable indie pedigree. She transforms for every role, but each has one thing in common—at heart, they’re all loners.
The enigmatic actress is a natural for a lonely-girl role. In spite of growing up in the wealthy suburb Bedford, New York in a family of football royalty (her mother’s family founded the Pittsburgh Steelers and her father’s family founded the New York Giants), Rooney describes always feeling insecure and out of place in her surroundings. She continues to be incredibly shy, described in various interviews as remote, guarded, aloof.
In her breakout role, David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Mara brought a brilliant icy rage to the title character, the brilliant twisted goth Lisbeth Salander. She then went on to critical acclaim in films like Spike Jonze’s indie sci-fi Her (2013) and Tod Haynes’ bittersweet drama Carol (2015). But some of her most interesting roles are still to come in 2017.
Rooney starts out the year in Terrence Malick’s Song to Song, about two entangled couples in the Austin music scene, alongside a power cast that includes Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett and Val Kilmer. Then she plays the title role in Una, adapted from acclaimed play Blackbird, the harrowing story of a young woman who reenters the life of the man she ran away with as a teen. She also co-stars with Casey Affleck in A Ghost Story, a spooky indie tale, and next up plays the lady herself in Mary Magdelene, directed by Garth Davis.
The Discovery (in theaters March 31) is Rooney Mara at her best—an edgy and mysterious beauty, a woman with is a tragic past. It’s a fascinating film, the latest from Charlie McDowell, who also happens to be Mara’s main squeeze. Like his last excellent film The One I Love, the story offers a unique blend of science fiction, drama and romance. Jason Segel co-stars as well as Robert Redford and Jessie Plemons. You can watch the intriguing trailer for The Discovery, above.
