WATCH: Rooney Mara on Loving Cate Blanchett in ‘Carol,’ Owning Lisbeth Salander, and More (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

Rooney Mara was nominated for Best Actress for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” directed by David Fincher, who discovered her in “The Social Network.” She has chosen well, working with Steven Soderbergh in “Side Effects,” Spike Jonze in “Her” and David Lowery in “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.” She shared the Best Actress prize at Cannes for “Carol,” and has now been pushed into the Best Actress category to compete with Cate Blanchett for her stunning work in the Todd Haynes 50s drama by the Hollywood Foreign Press. Will SAG and the Oscars follow?

She was initially reluctant to play the role of Therese, a lonely New York shopgirl described as “flung out of space” by the woman with whom she falls in love. Check out our video interview, as Mara describes her ’50s gamine look in the lesbian romance adapted by Phyllis Nagy from the Patricia Highsmith novel, how easy it was to react to the glam allure of Blanchett as a flirtatious, elegant woman trapped in a loveless suburban marriage, her work with Casey Affleck in western “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” Stephen Daldry in Brazil drama “Trash,” and how much she wants to play “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”‘s Lisbeth Salander again. “I’m not finished with her,” she says.  As far as she’s concerned, it’s her role until someone tells her different. 

Next up: Brit theater director Benedict Andrews’ “Blackbird” with Ben Mendelsohn and “Top of the Lake” director Garth Davis’ “Lion,” shot in Australia, opposite Nicole Kidman.