Fincher explains he chose Rooney Mara to play Lisbeth Salander in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' because 'the thing that with Scarlett is, you can't wait for her to take her clothes off.'
- Oct 18, 2011
AceShowbiz - Scarlett Johansson might be dubbed as one of the most shinning Hollywood beauties nowadays, but that doesn't help her win the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)". Director David Fincher recently told Vogue magazine that he chose Rooney Mara over Johansson because he thought that the "Iron Man 2" star is too sexy to play Salander.
"Look, we saw some amazing people. Scarlett Johansson was great," the director told the magazine about casting Johansson. "It was a great audition, I'm telling you. But the thing that with Scarlett is, you can't wait for her to take her clothes off."
As for how he wants the heroine to look like, Fincher explained, "I keep trying to explain this. Salander should be like 'E.T.' If you put 'E.T.' dolls out before anyone had seen the movie, they would say, 'What is this little squishy thing?' Well, you know what? When he hides under the table and he grabs the Reese's Pieces, you love him! It has to be like that."
Fincher then shared about how he finally decided to cast Mara for the part. Explaining that Mara has a combination of both lovability and strangeness, the director added, "There were all these different versions of Salander, but the one that had the most layers was Rooney's. I kept coming back to this. I thought, this is the person to follow."
During the interview, Mara also opened up about her physical transformation in portraying Salander. Aside from losing weight, she said that she must have her hair shaved on the sides, her eyebrows bleached, and her nipple, nose, eyebrow as well as lip pierced, all in one day.
"I went in looking like Erica Albright (her character in 'The Social Network') and I came out like this," Mara said. "The eyebrows were the biggest shock because that really changed my face, and I didn't recognize myself. But I was fine because I knew it was going to be really helpful for getting into character."
To open in U.S. theaters on December 21, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" centers on the mystery surrounding the long-unsolved disappearance of a heiress. A journalist recently dinged by a libel case and a young female hacker try to resolve it, stirring up bundles of personal and industrial corruption along the way. Joining Mara in the cast ensemble are Daniel Craig, Robin Wright Penn, Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Goran Visnjic, Joel Kinnaman and Joely Richardson among others.
