ROONEY MARA

The more people know about you, the less they can project who you are supposed to be. It's unfortunate that you really only get one shot at that.

I can understand wanting to be invisible and mistrusting people and wanting to understand everything before you engage with the world.

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

If there is one thing about my family that I do identify with, it is that everyone is extremely hardworking. Also, the people whom I grew up with all did things they really loved. And I think that's an important lesson.

I looked on YouTube for sleep deprivation and there were videos of people experimenting with staying awake for a while. You saw all the different stages.

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

There's a certain way people are used to seeing nude women, and that's in a submissive, coy pose, not looking at the camera. And in this poster, I'm looking dead into the camera with no expression on my face. I think it freaks a lot of people out.

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

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.

One of the things that make our version that much more heartbreaking is that even though I am playing a 24-year-old I look much younger. I look like a child.

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

I am very slow to warm. I've always been sort of a loner. I didn't play team sports. I am better one-on-one than in big groups.

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.

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.

I didn't even have pierced ears. They put four holes in each ear, and, weirdly, that hurt the most.

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

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

I'm not at all funny. I can do dark comedy pretty well, but straight-up comedy, I don't know. I'm much darker. I've been like that since I was 3 years old.

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

I always wanted to be an actor, but I was always fighting it. It never seemed that honorable to me, and I guess I was always afraid that I might fail.

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.

It's really hard coming of age in today's society, where society wants you to make the decision of what you want to do with your life by the time you're 16 years old. Most kids don't know what they want to do. How could they? They haven't lived in the real world yet.

When I do a film, I follow the director.

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.