The A Nightmare on Elm Street remake is a sour spot for many people. Horror fans hated it, the critics hated it, and now it seems one of the main stars has an awful experience on set.
Actress Rooney Mara made her mainstream debut in 2010’s Elm Street remake, and the film nearly derailed her career and seemed to be an overall bad time in her life. On a recent episode of the “LaunchLeft” podcast (via IndieWire), the actress opened up about the film but kept mum about any specific details.
“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,” Mara said. “I have 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. So 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.'”
2010’s Nightmare on Elm Street starred Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, and Kellan Lutz. The film was helmed by Samuel Bayer, who made his directorial debut and has only directed the one movie. The film came from producers Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller.
A year later, Rooney Mara starred in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She says the film sent her down a better path with director David Fincher helping her.
“I worked on it for a year straight,” Mara continued. “David really took me under his wing. He became my mentor in a lot of ways. 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 Mara can currently be seen in Women Talking, the latest film by director Sarah Polley [read our ★★★★★ review here]. She’ll soon star in Alonso Ruizpalacios’s The Kitchen.
