Scarlett Johansson Judged Too Sexy For Dragon Tattoo Role
Scarlett Johansson gave a “great audition” for the lead role in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” but was judged too sexy for the part by director David Fincher.
Speaking to Vogue, Fincher explained some of the reasons he chose Rooney Mara, a less famous name than Johansson, for the part of Lisbeth Salander:
“Look, we saw some amazing people. Scarlett Johansson was great. It was a great audition, I’m telling you. But the thing with Scarlett is, you can’t wait for her to take her clothes off.”
To be fair, “Sorry, you’re way too hot” is probably not the worst way to be rejected. Fincher talked up Mara to the magazine, comparing the 26-year-old to, er, E.T?
“I keep trying to explain this. Salander should be like ‘E.T.’ If you put ‘E.T.’ dolls out before anyone had seen the movie, they would say, ‘What is this little squishy thing?’ Well, you know what? When he hides under the table and he grabs the Reese’s Pieces, you love him! It has to be like that.”
The Fight Club director added that Mara’s portrayal of Salander had the “most layers,” saying her lovability and strangeness had appealed to him.
Mara also spoke to Vogue, giving an insight into some of the physical changes that she’d been through for her art. Apparently these involved weight loss, having her hair shaved on the sides, her eyebrows bleached, and her nipple, nose, eyebrow as well as lip pierced – all in the space of 24 hours:
“I went in looking like [her character in “The Social Network“] Erica Albright (her character in ‘The Social Network‘) and I came out like this. The eyebrows were the biggest shock because that really changed my face, and I didn’t recognize myself. But I was fine because I knew it was going to be really helpful for getting into character.”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is set to open in in U.S. theaters on December 21st, and let’s face it: Johansson or not, this is going to be pretty huge. Mara will be joined by, among others, Daniel Craig, Robin Wright Penn, Stellan Skarsgard, and Christopher Plummer.
