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1. Actress Rooney Mara was born Patricia Rooney Mara on April 17, 1985, in Bedford, New York.
2. Her full name is Patricia Rooney Mara.
3. Rooney’s family is considered NFL royalty because they collectively own not one but two major teams: the Pittsburgh Steelers (on her mother’s side) and the New York Giants (on her father’s). But for her part, Rooney seems totally over it. “I hate it when people ask me about my family—my football family,” Mara told T Magazine in August 2013. “It has no relevance to acting.”
4. For the 2011 film adaptation of the wildly popular Stieg Larsson novel, Rooney transformed herself into the badass main character, Lisbeth Salander, complete with bleached brows, a black moto pixie cut, and (yes) lots of tattoos.
5. Mara was born and raised in Bedford, New York.
6. Mara’s mother’s family founded the Pittsburgh Steelers.
7. Her father’s family founded the New York Giants. Her father, Timothy Christopher Mara, is the vice president of player evaluation for the New York Giants.
8. Rocking jeans, messy hair, and a giant shapeless black sweatshirt (from Alexander Wang’s Pre-Fall 2014 collection for Balenciaga), Rooney looked cool, minimalist, and effortless.
9. Her mother, Kathleen McNulty is a part-time real estate agent.
10. Her older sister is also an actress.
11. Rooney was a relative unknown until she played the relatively small role of Erica Albright, Mark Zuckerberg’s soon-to-be-ex in David Fincher’s film “The Social Network.” Her performance was widely lauded, with some critics even claiming she stole the whole film in the matter of 90 seconds.
12. She is the third of four children: she has an older brother, Daniel, Kate, and a younger brother, Conor.
13. After graduating from Fox Lane High School in 2003, she went to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in South America for four months as part of the Traveling School, an open learning environment.
14. She starred in David Lowery’s 2013 independent film Ain’t Them Bodies Saints which is described as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde story, alongside Casey Affleck and Ben Foster.
15. She made her acting debut in 2005, and went on to star in films such as Tanner Hall, the remake A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Social Network and Trash.
16. While both Anna and Taylor clearly opted for the more traditional route for the Spring 2012 Rodarte runway show in New York–by wearing lace, pastel, and neutrals–and Rooney went with black. All black.
17. Mara acted in a few student films while at NYU, and then began her career in acting, first auditioning at the age of nineteen.
18. Mara founded the charity Faces of Kibera, which aimed to provide housing, food, and medical care for orphans in Kibera, a Nairobi, Kenya slum. The charity’s goal was to build an orphanage in the region, for which 6 acres of land have been purchased. The charity auctioned memorabilia from the Steelers and Giants, as well as training camp events on eBay to raise money. She visited the area as a volunteer in 2006 and was moved to help the orphans, many whose parents have died from AIDS and HIV-related illnesses. She began the charity due to her frustration with the growing number of nonprofits that are just business opportunities. “The people who need help aren’t really getting it. So I started my own”, she told Interview magazine in 2009.
19. Her face completely changes when she smiles.
20. She found work in television, making her professional debut in a 2006 episode of the drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as a girl who bullies overweight children.
21. In 2011 she portrayed Lisbeth Salander, the title character in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on Stieg Larsson’s Millennium book series. She received critical acclaim for her performance and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.
22. She began preparing for the role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by starting to skateboard and kickbox, and underwent dialect and computer training. She also visited Stockholm, the setting of the novel.
23. Mara was inspired to act by seeing musical theatre and classic movies, like Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, and Bringing Up Baby, with her mother.
24. In 2013, she starred in the thriller Side Effects, the independent drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and the acclaimed sci-fi romantic drama, Her.
25. In 2015, she won the Best Actress Award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for her role in the film Carol.
26. She attended George Washington University for a year and then transferred to New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she studied psychology, international social policy and nonprofits, graduating in 2010.
27. Since 2010, she has been dating American director Charlie McDowell.
28. Mara first appeared as an extra in films which starred her sister, including a bit-part in the 2005 direct-to-video horror film Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.
29. Mara is also known for her charity work and oversees the charity Uweza Foundation, which supports empowerment programs for children and families in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the largest slums in Africa.
30. She is a vegan.
31. In May 2013, she became the new face of Calvin Klein new fragrance Down Town.
32. For her role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo she also had each of her ears pierced four times, and had her brow and right nipple pierced for the role. Her nose and lip piercings were fake. Mara’s eyebrows were bleached, and she wore a temporary dragon tattoo.
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