Rooney Mara

In order to have understanding, you need forgiveness, compassion, and empathy.

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

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'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.

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.

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

As an actor, you can't just be in the film. You're also in charge of selling it, and so you have to sell yourself, and you have to be very political and make sure to not say the wrong things. It's exhausting.

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

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.

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.

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