Rooney Mara almost quit acting after 'Nightmare on Elm Street' remake, says David Fincher who saved his career

It has been a good two years for Rooney Mara. The Oscar nominee received strong reviews for her back-to-back appearances in Guillermo del Toro's "Nightmare Alley" and Sarah Polley's "Women Talking," but those films were preceded by a years-long hiatus. Fans of the actress have had to come to terms with her sporadic work habits, given that she's become notoriously selective about the roles she's willing to take on.

In a new appearance on the LaunchLeft podcast, Mara explained that her selectivity is partly the result of an unpleasant experience on set in the late 2000s that almost caused her to quit acting.< /p>

"A few years before ['The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'], I had done a remake of 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' which was not a good experience," Mara said. “I have to be careful what I say and how I talk about it. It wasn't the best experience to do it and I kind of got to this place, which I still live in, that I don't want to play unless I'm doing things that I feel like I have to do. So after making this movie, I kind of decided, 'OK, I'm not going to act anymore unless it's something I feel like that.'"

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But that changed when she got the opportunity to play a small role in David Fincher's 'The Social Network', a collaboration that paved the way for her to headline his next film, 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

"I got an audition for 'The Social Network,' which was a small part but it was an amazing scene, then I didn't work again until I thought of 'Dragon Tattoo'" , she said. "David didn't want to audition me for it because he didn't think I was good for it based on what I did on 'The Social Network' and I kind of insisted that they're putting me on tape anyway, so I did, and then he had to fight really hard to get me the part because the studio didn't want me for it. That was a real turning point in my life and my career."

Mara says the experience of working with Fincher in a larger capacity on "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" gave her a new perspective on acting, and she now prioritizes working with directors who will treat her with the same level of respect.

“I worked on it for a year straight,” she said. “David really took me under his wing. He became my mentor in many ways. He took great pains to make sure I knew I had a voice and that my opinion meant something. He constantly empowered me, which I think really affected the rest of my choices afterwards."

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