Daniel Craig says Rooney Mara is "spot-on" as Lisbeth in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

As mentioned previously, buzz-building for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo began months ago. Here's what Daniel Craig told MTV about that long casting process for the Lisbeth Salander character. Rooney was up against quite a few femmes - Natalie Portman and Kristin Stewart have both been mentioned - but Craig knew it would be Mara early on!
"I think I knew pretty early on. I screen-tested with her a couple times and I saw exactly what [director] David [Fincher] was after with her," Craig told us. "If you read the books, she's just spot-on. Rooney herself is actually really rounded and normal — she's not boring, honestly — but she had to bring this very broken human being to life and she did it brilliantly."
Seeing Mara in the trailers it's hard to imagine how Portman or Stewart could have filled her shoes. They are both too pretty to begin with and Portman is - aaack - too old. Of course, Mara needed some physical adjustments to transform her into Lisbeth - they bleached her eyebrows, gave her some piercings and a radical haircut but it's the inner life that makes the difference. There's a brittle hardness masking a hint of the wounded and resentful woman Salander is. It looks like Mara captures this duality perfectly. As Daniel Craig said "Spot-on ".