With more than 40 million copies sold around the world, author Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is an international phenomenon, having spawned a Swedish film that became one of the highest grossing foreign films ever. Now though, the franchise is heading west with an American remake of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy heading to the big screen.
Everyone from Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, to Kristen Stewart and Ellen Page, was reportedly after the lead female role of Lisbeth Salander, but it was a relative unknown actress — AccessHollywood.com’s newest Rising Star, Rooney Mara — who nabbed the part. So who is she?
Horror fans know the brunette beauty as Nancy Holbrook, the girl who stared down Freddy Krueger in the 2010 remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
“We always had sort of like a running joke about Nancy and Freddy’s romance — how in the sequel they’d run away together,” Rooney laughed in an interview earlier this year with Access Hollywood.
In taking on the role, Rooney will give her own stamp to the part, which was originated by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace. Noomi had said she had no interest in reprising the role, although she is interested in breaking into the U.S. film market, having just signed with a talent agency and management company in Hollywood.
Rooney’s older sister, Kate Mara, has been around for more than a decade, most recently appearing in “Iron Man 2,” but there is no sibling rivalry of which to speak.
“It’s been really great for me because, you know, I’ve been able to look up to her and get advice from her,” Rooney previously told Access of her sister-in-the-business benefits. “We don’t have a rivalry at all.”
