Rooney Mara Talks with Steven Soderbergh in Interview Magazine -- the "Finch," Loving the Oscar, Nudity and More

Rooney Mara submitted to an email chat with her "Side Effects" director Steven Soderbergh for this month's Interview Magazine. The two smartypants engage in sarcastic banter about David Fincher, the Oscars and, er, the "reverse cowgirl."

Excerpts below, plus gorgeous black-and-white pictures from the mag's photo shoot.

Soderbergh: Why did [Fincher] have to do so many takes on all your scenes [in "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"]?

Mara: Har, har . . . Because I am such a pleasure to be around, Fincher would prolong my scenes so that I would be on set all of the time. And maybe because I am stubborn, I thought that I could out-stubborn him. But you can’t out-stubborn a Finch. He was always right, though. Not everyone can make films with “less than one take,” like you.

Soderbergh: So why didn't you win the Oscar?

Mara: Lots of reasons . . . I know how much you love your Oscar. My dog’s name is Oskar.

Soderbergh: Why are you naked in every movie?

Mara: I just do what I’m told, when I’m told. There is a line, though—like when you asked me to do reverse cowgirl with Channing [Tatum, who plays Mara’s husband in "Side Effects"], and I put my foot down. If the character should be nude in the scene and it makes sense and I trust the person making the film—and I regret my decision to trust you now that I know you more—then I don’t see a problem with it. I certainly don’t want to be involved in anything that is gratuitous, but I don’t think the human body is something to be ashamed of. Every other person on the planet has the same parts as I do. So seeing them shouldn’t be a huge shock to most people.

Soderbergh:  So why don’t you eat normal food?

Mara: By “normal,” do you mean food that has been genetically modified? I try to eat food that hasn’t been washed in ammonia and then packaged in the shape of breaded dinosaurs filled with cheese—even though those are very tasty. I like to eat food that can actually make it through the 20-plus feet of my small intestine.