On 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' I spent two or three months learning how to ride a motorcycle. I wasn't really riding the motorcycle in 98 percent of the movie, but the shots of me getting on and off had to look like I had been doing it for years and years.

Rooney Mara

The more people know about you, the less they can project who you are supposed to be. It's unfortunate that you really only get one shot at that.

Rooney Mara

You Who Up

It's really hard coming of age in today's society, where society wants you to make the decision of what you want to do with your life by the time you're 16 years old. Most kids don't know what they want to do. How could they? They haven't lived in the real world yet.

Rooney Mara

Time Society Life

I try to eat food that hasn't been washed in ammonia and then packaged in the shape of breaded dinosaurs filled with cheese - even though those are very tasty. I like to eat food that can actually make it through the 20-plus feet of my small intestine.

Rooney Mara

Food Age Wit

I'm probably more insane than most people and less than a lot of others. I'm somewhere in the middle.

Rooney Mara

Where Than T

If the entire script feels formulaic, then you know that the film will be like that. But if it's a really interesting script, and the character happens to be formulaic, then maybe there's a way of making them more interesting.

Rooney Mara

You Will Way

I didn't even have pierced ears. They put four holes in each ear, and, weirdly, that hurt the most.

Rooney Mara

Weirdly Weird T

As a 12-year-old, I think everything seems scary.

Rooney Mara

Car Year Very

I love to read. I'm still pen pals with my ninth-grade English teacher, Mr. Shanley. He tells me what books to read.

Rooney Mara

Teacher Love Wit

If there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking. Also, the people whom I grew up with all did things they really loved. And I think that's an important lesson.

Rooney Mara

Work Love Family

I grew up in a little cul-de-sac in the suburbs and went to public school. I went to Costco on the weekends.

Rooney Mara

Weekends Weekend Week

What bothers me about the whole trust-fund thing is that it sort of presumes that everything is handed to you. And if there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking.

Rooney Mara

Work Trust Family

My sister started acting professionally when she was twelve, but I wanted to go to college first.

Rooney Mara

Art Wanted Want

I've been trying to really live in the moment because I will never get this part of it back. As soon as the movie comes out, everyone will turn it into what they believe it is, so I've really been trying to appreciate every minute of now. Because I know what's coming.

Rooney Mara

Mom Men Art

There were certainly things I was scared to do, but I never thought I wasn't up for the challenge.

Rooney Mara

Car Were Up

On 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' I spent two or three months learning how to ride a motorcycle. I wasn't really riding the motorcycle in 98 percent of the movie, but the shots of me getting on and off had to look like I had been doing it for years and years.

Rooney Mara

Learning Years And Years Years

I'm not at all funny. I can do dark comedy pretty well, but straight-up comedy, I don't know. I'm much darker. I've been like that since I was 3 years old.

Rooney Mara

Funny Years Year

It's really helpful when you do something you don't like. You won't make that mistake again. It's like dating a bunch of people who are wrong for you - you learn so much more about yourself that way.

Rooney Mara

Yourself Yours Your

I don't find myself intriguing.

Rooney Mara

T Self Rig

I pick up energy really easily. Even if I go to the grocery store, and no one is paying attention to me, I can pick up other people's moods, and it's really intense.

Rooney Mara

Yin Up Tent

I've always been a very sensitive person, and people tell me that if I'm in a certain mood, and I go into a room, my mood will permeate the room. It's not on purpose - I'd rather be invisible in those moments - but I'm really bad at faking how I feel.

Rooney Mara

Mom Men Will

There's a certain way people are used to seeing nude women, and that's in a submissive, coy pose, not looking at the camera. And in this poster, I'm looking dead into the camera with no expression on my face. I think it freaks a lot of people out.

Rooney Mara

Just because the character listens to an iPod and wears black nail polish, she's goth. That was just a misused word.

Rooney Mara

Daniel Day-Lewis - he's a man, obviously, but I really admire his work.

Rooney Mara

People think that I grew up going to Barneys for my back-to-school clothes. I went to the Gap. We lived in a nice house on a cul-de-sac, but it wasn't a mansion. We didn't have a butler or a maid.

Rooney Mara

It never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail.

Rooney Mara

I'd like to flip houses.

Rooney Mara

I guess I don't really measure myself by what others think. So even though I have gotten to work with some amazing directors, and you might perceive me to be that girl, that isn't how I see myself. So if one day nobody wants to work with me, it won't be this massive surprise.

Rooney Mara

Marion Cotillard is one of my favorite actresses.

Rooney Mara

I always wanted to be an actor, but I was always fighting it. It never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail.

Rooney Mara

One of the things that make our version that much more heartbreaking is that even though I am playing a 24-year-old I look much younger. I look like a child.

Rooney Mara

I can understand wanting to be invisible and mistrusting people and wanting to understand everything before you engage with the world.

Rooney Mara

Now I literally roll out of bed and put on whatever is there. I have really enjoyed being a boy this last year.

Rooney Mara

I am very slow to warm. I've always been sort of a loner. I didn't play team sports. I am better one-on-one than in big groups.

Rooney Mara

I am one of 40 grandchildren. What bothers me about the whole trust-fund thing is that it sort of presumes that everything is handed to you. And if there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking.

Rooney Mara

I looked on YouTube for sleep deprivation and there were videos of people experimenting with staying awake for a while. You saw all the different stages.

Rooney Mara

When I was at college, my nickname was Keds because I wore Keds. I guess it wasn't really a nickname, because nicknames are usually given to you by people who are your friends and who know you. But I didn't know the people who called me Keds. I think that they didn't like me because I didn't want to join a sorority.

Rooney Mara

When I do a film, I follow the director.

Rooney Mara

I feel like I've been guarded since I was about three years old. I don't know why. I come from such a huge family, so maybe it's that. Maybe it comes from going to Christmas and having 30 people all in your face at once. I've always been a bit like, 'Aaargh!'

Rooney Mara

I like being alone. I need a lot of alone time as a human. And especially on a movie set when you're around people all day long.

Rooney Mara

I never do anything for the camera. It's my job to pretend the camera's not there. I'm never moving for the camera.

Rooney Mara

I've done jobs where I thought, 'I don't want to be that kind of actor; I don't want to work on something with people who don't have the same kind of goal as I do.'

Rooney Mara

In order to have understanding, you need forgiveness, compassion, and empathy.

Rooney Mara

How do we get to equality? I don't think it comes from fear. I think it comes from understanding.

Rooney Mara

As an actor, you can't just be in the film. You're also in charge of selling it, and so you have to sell yourself, and you have to be very political and make sure to not say the wrong things. It's exhausting.

Rooney Mara

Because I'm highly empathetic, it's easy for me to put myself in the character's shoes. It's, you know, finding the truth of the moment.

Rooney Mara