Rooney Mara

[Deleted]

Fincher has a longtime partner who is also his producing partner. Apparently she's now also acting as Mara's publicist. It looks like the three have some strangely close working relationship.

[GoldenFleece]

Why is that a blind item? From that Vogue story:

As Fincher talks about the film, his heroine, Mara—with Salander’s awesomely strange hair, bleached eyebrows, and facial piercings—sits next to him, looking for all the world like a troubled college student who takes too much Adderall. She hangs on his every word, her eyes lit with admiration. Their relationship, it quickly becomes clear, is charged with the electric current of the mentor-protégée crush, which is both touching and occasionally uncomfortable to watch. Or, as Daniel Craig, who costars as a crusading journalist named Mikael Blomkvist, says about their working relationship, “It’s fucking weird!”

When a waiter appears to take our order, we are all looking at our menus, but I see out of the corner of my eye Fincher nudging Mara. He says with quiet seriousness, “You can eat.” I look up to see her reaction. Mara rolls her eyes, and Fincher laughs. “You can have lettuce and a grape. A raisin if you must.” She orders a piece of fish and barely touches it. In the book, Salander is described as boyish and awkward, “a pale, anorexic young woman who has hair as short as a fuse. . . .” Noomi Rapace, the magnetic star of the Swedish versions, looked more like Joan Jett. “One of the things that make our version that much more heartbreaking,” says Mara, “is that even though I am playing a 24-year-old, I look much younger. I look like a child.” I ask if she had to get unhealthily skinny for the role. She says, “Umm . . . not really.”

“It hasn’t been too hard for her,” Fincher quickly adds.

[Wenton]

Daniel Craig is beyond awesome. Not that it's much of a surprise.

[huntergrayson]

If Fincher were gay (besides the partner, IMDB lists him as having an ex-wife and a kid), it's safe to say that bstewart and I would be clawing each other's eyes out to make him our cinematic genius husbear.

I wonder if part of the weirdness is Rooney staying "in character" or being too method-y because they haven't "technically" greenlit the next movies yet (though I can't imagine why they wouldn't) but I'm guessing that she/Fincher/Sony may end up shooting the next two back-to-back next year. Given all the psychological and physical prep Rooney went through to become Lisbeth, it might be easier for her not to get to far away from the character if she's going to be plunged back in so soon.

I honestly don't get what the big deal is considering "weird" or overly intimate actor/director relationships is one of the oldest stories in Hollywood and I haven't heard anything about Fincher doing anything genuinely inappropriate or untoward. (Like, say, Hitchcock making Grace Kelly give him a private striptease while he watched through a telescope on the Rear Window set). Heck, I'm far more worried about Depp/Burton's codependency.

[petitesuite]

Because there's always an odder, creepier element when it's a young woman (particularly an unknown, with zero power in the relationship) and an older, much more powerful male director. I don't see why the fact that it's been going on for a while makes it less creepy and at least in Depp/Burton the power inequality isn't nearly as dramatic. I'm struggling to think of examples that are a direct parallel and that no one has found odd--Scarlett Johansson/Woody Allen comes to mind, but it's not like no one finds Allen creepy (hello) and, again, I would imagine Johansson had a little more leverage in that relationship.

[huntergrayson]

But, as the BI points out, Fincher's reputation doesn't include "tomfoolery" and whatnot. He is pretty well-known as a consummate professional and perfectionist. Granted, I don't know the man but based of listening to his commentaries and interviews, he doesn't strike me as the type who is "getting off" on power over Mara. And I think it's pretty obvious that the "you may have one raisin" comment was a joke or for effect in front of the interviewer think they're building the character together and probably have a lot of inside jokes and shorthand that looks weird from the outside.

Or I could be wrong and they're going to run off together and get married. Stranger things have happened.

[mochakitty]

Rooney at the world premiere of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (December 12th, London):

Close-up

Full Length Shot

The actress wore a Givenchy Fall 2011 Couture gown.

[Atreides]

Nice dress but that is one severe look on her with the ghost-white makeup. I wonder if she'll do this Euro-goth-fashionista-I'm so edgy look for all of awards season?

[Deleted]

At this point, I think both she and Fincher are ridiculous. This is a re-make of an average movie that had excellent performances and beautiful scenery, based on an average book with some interesting elements about contemporary Sweden which will most likely be stripped away. This is not interesting or provocative art as the media and the Fincher fans seem to be squeeing.

I am dreading the silly accents. Why would Swedes speak English with fake Swedish or British accents (I think Craig said he is using a British accent)? If you are going to re-make a foreign movie in English, then just have the characters speak English.

Also, there is an uncomfortable subtext to all this oohing and ahhing over Lisbeth because imo, she is simply a white man's fantasy. Yes, she has many strengths, but much of the characterisation of Lisbeth seems to be a man's idea of female power and strength.

[kali]

Nov 24, 2011 18:34:52 GMT -4 @huntergrayson said:

But, as the BI points out, Fincher's reputation doesn't include "tomfoolery" and whatnot. He is pretty well-known as a consummate professional and perfectionist. Granted, I don't know the man but based of listening to his commentaries and interviews, he doesn't strike me as the type who is "getting off" on power over Mara. And I think it's pretty obvious that the "you may have one raisin" comment was a joke or for effect in front of the interviewer think they're building the character together and probably have a lot of inside jokes and shorthand that looks weird from the outside.

Or I could be wrong and they're going to run off together and get married. Stranger things have happened.

The raisin comment was obviously a joke. But for me, it was telling that she looked to him before she ordered, that he seemed to obviously want to gloss over how much weight she had to lose, and that she ended up barely eating a thing in front of him. That's what made that situation creepy.

I'm irrationally annoyed by how her eyebrows are done in the film. It gives her this scared rabbit look.