5 Things You Didn’t Know About Rooney Mara

Rooney Mara

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Rooney Mara

BY LILAH RAMZI

September 14, 2017

Considering Rooney Mara’s almost endlessly malleable on-screen appearance—we’ve seen her as a tatted goth hacker, a sexually inexperienced ’50s-era ingenue, and will soon watch her transform into a biblical heroine—it’s not surprising that it can be tough to pin her down. And the lithe, dark-tressed actress, a stoic on the red carpet in stark columnar gowns, has developed quite an aura of mystique.

But as of late, with a host of big-profile performances, Mara has become slightly less abstract. After a thought-provoking role in this summer’s A Ghost Story, her film, Una—a story about a Lolita-type victim’s reconciliation—is out next month, and next year she will appear in the title role of the highly anticipated Mary Magdalene. And as she tells Nathan Heller in this month’s cover story, she’s just dealing with the same household chores we all are.

Here are 5 things you didn’t know about everyone’s favorite enigmatic actress, Rooney Mara.

1. Rooney is not her first name. Her full name is Patricia Rooney Mara, and she went by the abbreviated Tricia throughout her youth. Upon embarking on her acting career, she decided to rebrand to Rooney. “I never really liked my first name,” Mara told Paper Magazine in 2010. “I never felt like a Tricia. And Rooney is more memorable.” On that note, her surname is pronounced like Maara, not Maura. Have a listen here.
2. She had her nipples pierced. Before the sisters Jenner brought this trend somewhat closer to the mainstream, Mara had her nipples pierced, among other things, for her role as the Scandinavian noir heroine Lisbeth Salander. Faking piercings was of course an option, but not for the fully committed thespian who told Allure it helped her get into character. “I thought, She has it in the book, and she should have it [in the movie].” Mara, who began her transformation with not a single piercing on her body, submitted herself to ear, nose, eyebrow, and nipple piercings. Of the latter, she admitted, “It was actually not that painful,” and she even kept it in for a time in anticipation of a potential sequel to the film. “It’s not something I want to ever get re-pierced.”
3. She doesn’t watch her own movies. For her 2013 Vogue cover story, Mara told Hamish Bowles she hates seeing her own movies, avoids the experience unless necessary, and prefers to watch them by herself in a public theater. “Anytime I see anything I’ve done, I wish that it had gone differently,” she told Bowles, also revealing she first saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in a theater near Manhattan’s Union Square. And it seems her aversion has not waned. In this month’s cover story she revealed her plans to buy a ticket to her first viewing of A Ghost Story at a local Los Angeles theater.
4. Mara is a vegan in more ways than one. Yes, her veganism is well known given the whole pie incident. But in Mara’s house, veganism is not limited to the kitchen; it also permeates into her wardrobe. For ethical reasons, Mara is in the process of phasing leather out of her closet, a task that she finds particularly difficult in the shoe department. Furthermore, her environmentally minded lifestyle has prompted her to tote around crockery to minimize her waste. No plastic cups for her.
5. She once harbored dreams of being a singer. It’s common knowledge that Rooney’s acting career was influenced by that of her older sister Kate’s (of The Martian and House of Cards fame), but it’s lesser known that Rooney was seduced by musical theater. Growing up, Mara admits to having seen Les Misérables at least half a dozen times and Rent even more. “That’s actually why I started acting,” she explains. “Just because I can’t really sing, so that was like my only way into that world that I love.”

VOGUE