Mara Talks Dragon Tattoo

As part of EW's Fall Movie Preview issue there it is one of the first interviews with actress Rooney Mara star David Fincher's American adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-seller "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".

Of the already infamous teaser poster which seees her baring her breasts, Mara says “I was supportive of it. I understand why there was a lot of controversy. People have a hard time with strong females and with nudity. But I think had I been doing something incredibly violent on the poster, people wouldn’t have had a problem with it. That sort of says a lot about the world that we live in. It’s just a teaser poster. I think it did just that. It teased people.”

The book features a controversial rape scene between her and her state-appointed guardian. It's a rough scene and the Swedish-language TV-turned-film adaptation held nothing back in its screen depiction of the sequence

Asked about shooting it for Fincher's version, Mara says "It was incredibly intense. We did it all in a week - the week of Valentine's Day, oddly enough. We were working 16 hours a day, and it was really, really challenging, not just emotionally but physically. But it's such an important scene. We wanted to do everything we could to get that right."

Finally Mara also talked about the casting process which saw her auditioning numerous times over a two month period. which saw her become pretty peeved "I was just super frustrated. I was like, 'You have to decide. Either you think I'm the girl or you don't. There's not much more I can do to prove it to you.' I went in there sort of ready to fight. I was pissed. But David Fincher sat me down and gave me this long speech about the part. Then he handed me his iPad, and it had the press release on it. He said, 'I'm prepared to send this out. You have half an hour to let me know if you want the part.'

The story follows a disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) and a misunderstood rebellious female hacker (Mara) investigating the 40-year-old disappearance of retired industrialist Henrik Vanger's niece on a remote island. Their investigation uncover religious killings, Nazism, rape, child abuse and murder.

Joely Richardson, Steven Berkoff David Dencik Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgård and Christopher Plummer co-star in the project Steven Zaillian adapted the script,

The highly anticipated film hits theaters on December 21, 2011.