David Fincher has revealed that Scarlett Johansson lost out on the lead role in his Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake despite a great audition.
The director spoke to Vogue and said, "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" err, true but, a little too honest. He added about the character, Salander "should be like E.T….There were all these different versions of Salander, but the one that had the most layers was Rooney's. I kept coming back to this." But the director had to fight to get Rooney Mara in the main role saying, "I had said so often, '[Mara] is the one I want'. They said, 'No. You are being obstinate. Move on'. And I said, 'Nope'. Part of me wanted that last puppy that nobody else did. I didn't want the consensus. I wanted the person that made everybody go, 'Really?' I needed that."
While I'm sure Mara was delighted to bag such an amazing part, being described as "that last puppy that nobody wanted" probably won't go down too well. Fincher is nothing if not bluntly honest, though and in fairness the film does look fantastic. Expect to see it around Christmas.
