Rooney Mara

Because I'm highly empathetic, it's easy for me to put myself in the character's shoes. It's, you know, finding the truth of the moment.

People think that I grew up going to Barneys for my back-to-school clothes. I went to the Gap. We lived in a nice house on a cul-de-sac, but it wasn't a mansion. We didn't have a butler or a maid.

I've done jobs where I thought, 'I don't want to be that kind of actor; I don't want to work on something with people who don't have the same kind of goal as I do.'

I never do anything for the camera. It's my job to pretend the camera's not there. I'm never moving for the camera.

If the entire script feels formulaic, then you know that the film will be like that. But if it's a really interesting script, and the character happens to be formulaic, then maybe there's a way of making them more interesting.

On 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' I spent two or three months learning how to ride a motorcycle. I wasn't really riding the motorcycle in 98 percent of the movie, but the shots of me getting on and off had to look like I had been doing it for years and years.

I don't find myself intriguing.

When I do a film, I follow the director.

When I was at college, my nickname was Keds because I wore Keds. I guess it wasn't really a nickname, because nicknames are usually given to you by people who are your friends and who know you. But I didn't know the people who called me Keds. I think that they didn't like me because I didn't want to join a sorority.

Daniel Day-Lewis - he's a man, obviously, but I really admire his work.

I grew up in a little cul-de-sac in the suburbs and went to public school. I went to Costco on the weekends.

My sister started acting professionally when she was twelve, but I wanted to go to college first.

What bothers me about the whole trust-fund thing is that it sort of presumes that everything is handed to you. And if there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking.

It never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail.

Just because the character listens to an iPod and wears black nail polish, she's goth. That was just a misused word.

I've been trying to really live in the moment because I will never get this part of it back. As soon as the movie comes out, everyone will turn it into what they believe it is, so I've really been trying to appreciate every minute of now. Because I know what's coming.

There were certainly things I was scared to do, but I never thought I wasn't up for the challenge.

As a 12-year-old, I think everything seems scary.

I am one of 40 grandchildren. What bothers me about the whole trust-fund thing is that it sort of presumes that everything is handed to you. And if there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking.

Now I literally roll out of bed and put on whatever is there. I have really enjoyed being a boy this last year.