Rooney Mara Almost Quit Acting Entirely After ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’: ‘It Was Not A Good Experience’

Rooney Mara is opening up about the film that almost ended her acting career.

In a new interview on the LaunchLeft podcast, the 37-year-old entertainer said that it was really director David Fincher who convinced and fought for her to go on.

“A few years before [The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo], I had done a Nightmare on Elm Street remake, which was not a good experience,” Rooney admitted.

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She went on, explaining that she has “to be careful with what I say and how I talk about it. It wasn’t the best experience making it and I kind of got to this place, that I still live in, that I don’t want to act unless I’m doing stuff that I feel like I have to do.”

Rooney adds that “after making that film, I kind of decided, ‘OK, I’m just not going to act anymore unless it’s something that I feel that way about.’”

Her outlook then changed after meeting David while filming The Social Network.

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

Rooney added that her experience working with David in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gave her a new perspective about acting.

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

Rooney currently stars in Sarah Polley‘s Women Talking.