Finally I managed to finish the first article of my monthly feature In Profile. This article is aimed to introduce talented rising stars—who are mostly in my age, so I'll be very picky in choosing the subject. And for this lovely February, I'm proudly going to introduce... Rooney Mara!
As you might have noticed from the twitter, I'm currently admiring this 25 years-old actress. She started out her acting career in 2005, but got her first big break in 2009 after starring in "Dare" and "The Winning Season", which premiered in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and finally a comedy hit "Youth in Revolt" along with Michael Cera. She also made a guest appearance in television series "ER" in the same year. Those roles brought her to be included in "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker magazine.
In 2010, Rooney's career went even brighter. She landed the leading role in the famous remake of "A Nightmare on Elm's Street", as Nancy Holbrook. "She's socially awkward and timid and really doesn't know how to connect with people," Rooney explained about her character. It was a huge hit, grossing $ 115 million around the world, despite the negative critics, and she has been signed to do a sequel for the movie.
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Her next project was David Fincher's directed movie "The Social Network", adapted from Ben Mezrich best-selling novel, "The Accidental Billionaires", revealing the ugly-truth behind explosive success of the most popular social networking website today, Facebook. As you know now, the movie was deemed as 'best movie of the year', and is up for Best Picture nominee in Academy Awards. Rooney auditioned for the role Erica Albright, Mark Zuckerberg's then girlfriend who 'inspired' him to create Facebook.
"We read everybody in the world for the part of Erica," Fincher reminisced about the day he cast 'Erica Albright' role, as he told W Magazine. "It’s only one scene, but it sets the tone for the rest of the movie. When Rooney walked in, I said, 'There’s the girl!'".
And he did it right. Rooney's performance as Erica Albright attracted many critics. Do you still remember the opening scene of "Social Network" where Erica and Mark were having a warm chat but then ended up ugly in breaking apart? Fincher shot that likely-simple scene for 99 takes in two days. He tried out many things from different aspects, particularly emotional. He wanted to describe the relationship of Erica and Mark without showing it explicitly. So we all know about how much they like each other, did they ever sleep together, how close they are.
"Rooney and I decided that Zuckerberg had not sealed the deal," Fincher finally explained. "And I needed to have that information for the scene to work,". Again, he did it right. The scene was more-than-just-a break up scene. It was full of smart dialogues, and we can see clearly Erica's expression shift from lively to terribly mad. Rooney nailed her role.
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| Rooney and Jesse Eisenberg portraying Erica Albright and Mark Zuckerberg respectively in "The Social Network". The opening scene at the bar was a great one, I must say. |
Scott Feingerg, an avid Oscar blogger, even wrote that he was blown away by Rooney's performance in "The Social Network". "The five-minute-long opening scene of “The Social Network,” in which Albright butts heads with and ultimately breaks up with Zuckerberg, is, for my money, the most electric and memorable of any this year," Feingerg wrote on his blog.
"One could argue that Mara had even heavier lifting to do than Eisenberg in that scene, since his character’s job is essentially to be a prick (or “asshole,” as Albright calls him), while hers must transform from someone who cared enough about him at the start of the evening to meet him for a drink into someone who grows so flustered, insulted, and repulsed by him that she can no longer bear to even sit at the same table as him. All the while, she conveys a simple beauty, intelligence, and wit that leaves moviegoers flabbergasted that Zuckerberg would do anything to risk losing her," he continued.
As the award season is gearing up and "The Social Network" has been receiving a lot (like, so many!) of awards since the end of 2010 — including the best ensemble cast, Feingerg also expected that Rooney would be more 'appreciated' in this role, and he even suggested The Academy (main board committee of the Oscar) to include her in the Best Supporting Actress nomination. Unfortunately, Rooney herself wasn't in US most of the days when the award season started, because she already got her first most extreme and claim-to-fame leading role, Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo".
"I am totally convinced that Mara would be generating serious awards buzz right about now if she, like all of the other people competing for a nomination, could have been in the United States at the time of her film’s release to promote it and, in so doing, herself," Feingerg explained. "Some will undoubtedly disparage the very notion that Mara is worthy of a nomination for her work in “The Social Network” because she appears in so few scenes and has such little screen time. I would remind them to consider two things: (1) the quality of her work in those scenes, and (2) the numerous precedents of brief appearances being recognized in this category," he continued on supporting Rooney to be nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category.
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| Rooney's drastic transformation from a beautiful girl-next-door to the goth-lady Lisbeth. |
Even though she didn't make the nominations cut, she is now enjoying her day filming "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" in Sweden, with the same director as "The Social Network". It is based on the best-selling Swedish book with the same name by Stieg Larrson, which was previously made into movie of the same name, only in Swedish. Actress Naomi Rapace portrayed Lisbeth first at the Swedish version, and she was highly praised. Now Rooney has to prove to the audience — as people started to bicker about why do they have to make the American version — that she can do as great as Rapace, or even better.
The audition of Lisbeth was quite radical. Rooney had to reenact one of the most famous Lisbeth scene on the book, a rape scene. Rooney was succeed in the audition, beating other famous names as Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, and Jennifer Lawrence. After the brutal rape scene, Fincher asked Rooney to do more screen tests before finally she got the role. After that, as you can see, there's a significant transformation in Rooney's recent looks. Her hair is darker, way shorter — in a very messy way — with body full of tattoos and piercings. She is now Lisbeth Salander.
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Apart from her rising successful career, there's another thing that made me admire her outside of her cinema world. Rooney founded Faces of Kibera, a non-profit organization concerning about the life of children in Kibera, one of the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya. One million people are living in this area without proper facilities. The idea of making this organization came up after Rooney taking a voluntary trip to Kibera back in 2006.
Six month after the voluntary program, Rooney came back to Kibera bought 6 acres of land, to build an orphanage in the region. She held a fundraising event both on and offline, enabling her organization to buy backpacks for the children, to provide clean water, housing, food, and medical care for the orphans. She sold some memorabilia from the famous football club in US, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants, in which her parents take part as the board member.
Rooney said to Interview magazine back in 2009 about her frustration with the growing number of non-profits that are just business opportunities. "The people who need help aren’t really getting it. So I started my own,". She was touched by the Kiberan children whose parents died from HIV/AIDS, and didn't have a fair living.
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Born Patricia Rooney Mara, she was raised in a wealthy family, particularly football royalty. Her father, Timothy Mara, is grandson of New York Giants founder Tim Mara and currently served as the vice president of the club. Her mother is granddaughter of Art Rooney the founder of Pittsburgh Steelers. But she is hardly a picture of a spoiled rich-girl, since she has a clear aim of her future.
She attended Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, studied psychology, international social policy, and nonprofits. Before that, she took a trip to South America, visiting Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia for four months as part of the Traveling School, to learn more about environment.
She became interested in acting after the success of her older sister's career, Kate Mara, which starred in famous titles as "Brokeback Mountain", "We Are Marshall", and "Shooter". "I always wanted to be an actor, but I was always fighting it," Rooney said. "It never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail. [...] I love my sister and have looked up to her my whole life — to the point of annoying her and wanting to be like her. I followed her around and stole her clothes, I still do."
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All I want to say is the best luck for her career and charity program! God bless you, Rooney!
