Rooney Mara Waxes Philosophical On Nudity And Death

Side Effects star Rooney Mara touched on the subjects of swearing, on-screen nudity and sex, and even death in a recent sit-down with her most recent director, Stephen Soderbergh.

Mara is Interview Magazine‘s March 2013 cover girl, sitting down with Side Effects director Soderbergh for an interview that touched on a variety of subjects. The lauded 27-year-old actress recalled that there were moments during shooting when she put her foot down with Soderbergh, specifically mentioning a scene in which she was asked to perform” reverse cowgirl” on co-star Channing Tatum.

“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,” she said.

“First of all, reverse cowgirl occupies a very important position in porn — pun intended,” jokes Soderbergh. “Plus, you told me that you couldn’t stand to look at Channing, so I was just trying to solve a problem.”

But on-screen nudity isn’t really a problem for Mara:

“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.”

NY Daily reports that Mara also talked a bit about her life growing up including the “code words” she had to use to disguise bawdy language.

“When I was growing up,” she says, “I wasn’t allowed to say ‘fart.’ Fart was a swear word. We had to say ‘honk’ instead — ‘He honked!’ A penis was a ‘winky.’ But these days, I like words with a little more punch.”

Mara also admitted that she wonders about what happens if a film’s star dies part way through filming.

“Sometimes I think about that—like, ‘Okay, if I died right now, would they have to reshoot the whole film? Or would they be able to edit around it.’ Then I think through the scenes that are left to shoot, and weigh if they would be able to finish it or not.”

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