Rooney Mara Calls 'SVU' Role Stupid

With a leading role in David Fincher‘s upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination), Rooney Mara is a name on everyone’s lips. But issuing from Mara’s own lips are a few words of negativity about where the actress, 26, got her start.

Speaking about her role in a 2006 episode of Law & Order: SVU, Mara criticized the story line for making an embarrassingly little amount of sense. “It was so awful. So stupid,” Mara told Allure. “Me and my boyfriend — although I [didn’t] look old enough to have a boyfriend — went and beat up these fat people, and at the end of the show you find out that I used to be obese and I hate fat people. It’s ridiculous. Who would ever do that? Who would beat someone up because they’re fat?”

Maybe Mara shouldn’t be too worried about her small screen debut, but it was her head-turning role in last year’s The Social Network (she dumped Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg), that most people will remember as the first time they saw her.

Besides, her relative obscurity in the minds of moviegoers is what landed her the coveted Dragon Tattoo role, beating out the likes of Scarlett Johansson. “I don’t think [Fincher]’s intention was ever to hire someone well-known,” she said. “To make this movie, he needed someone that people were unfamiliar with because it’s the only way they would really believe this character. She’s such a mystery. You couldn’t hire someone that people already have a relationship with.”