Kate Mara: Hottie Magnet
Why is cute, 24-year-old red-haired actress Kate Mara a hottie magnet? Well, she's acted opposite hot Matthew McConaughey in the recent sports flick We Are Marshall and was Heath Ledger's daughter in Brokeback Mountain. She also co-starred with Keifer Sutherland in the mega-hot TV series "24" for a while. She played a superheroine in Zoom. Now, lovely Kate gets to nurse Mark Wahlberg's wounds in the actioner Shooter.
Mara started acting at age 14 and is also an accomplished singer. Her great-grandad was the founder of the New York Giants team and she often sings the national anthem at games. Kate joined us in Beverly Hills last week to give us insider info on working with a very buff Mark Wahlberg in Shooter. Should there be a kissing scene? What was her opinion of Mark before she actually met him? Kate gives us some great, funny, on-set info! She looks young but is she tired of playing a teen? Picture the redhead in brown zipper jacket over cute dark blue, low-cut chiffon Kenneth Cole tunic top and jeans.
TeenHollywood: Okay, let's dish. Marc looks very buff in this film. You have to remove a bullet and, he's not wearing much. Was that a fun scene?
Kate: [laughs] I don't think it said in the script that he was lying there with just a little towel over him. For some reason that kind of went over my head. That was the quickest scene we shot. It would have been fun to pick out the bullet but I would never be able to be a nurse or anything in real life, so I think that might be kind of cool to pretend to do.
TeenHollywood: So you guys almost kiss. Was there a take when you did?
Kate: 
We had the scene with Sarah [her character] and Swagger [Mark's] when she gives him Donnie's gun. There's a version where they do kiss. There wasn't any crazy love scene or anything like that. We talked about it before I ever even got the role. Antoine and Lorenzo [director and producer] during our first meeting asked me about the kiss, just what I thought as a woman and [I said] 'I think it would be more honest if they didn't, especially with their situation' [Kate's dead husband in the film was Mark's character's best friend]. They clearly have this emotional connection but I just think it makes them a lot more layered and honest if they don't.
TeenHollywood: Worked for me. Did you have any preconceptions about Mark before you worked with him and how was he to work with?
Kate: 
I've always been a fan of his work from the beginning of his career. He's always done really good movies and really different films, so I always admired that about him. You just get the sense that he must be a really hard worker. He is one of the hardest workers I think I've ever met. You just get the sense that he does his homework, he always knows his lines. It's sort of bizarre. He never messes up. But it's not as though he's locked in. If you want improve or whatever, he's so there. For an actor, he's
really great to work with. Also, he's just a really nice generous guy, and in between takes it wasn't like incredibly serious and intense or anything like that, which all the scenes are. You think it might be like that on set, but it wasn't. It was fun and was easy.
TeenHollywood: Speaking of something that didn't look fun, Sarah is roughed-up and menaced by Elias Koteas who is just creepy in the movie. Was he creepy offscreen?
Kate: [laughs] He's not creepy offscreen. He's a really nice guy. He felt so bad. He had to torture me and pull my hair. I mean he would get clumps of my hair caught on his jacket and he was so sweet. During that scene up on the glacier (above Whistler, B.C., Canada) when he's got me kind of tied to the shotgun, I had that tiny little outfit on and during the faraway shots, my shirt kept like rising up and I would be shivering, and he could feel that I was shivering and he was acting and making these scary faces, and like secretly, trying to help me. It was the sweetest thing. Like screaming at me, 'I'm going to kill you', and like pulling my shirt down. That's another great thing about being the only girl on set. Everybody's so nice and trying to make sure you're okay.
TeenHollywood: That's a great insider story. This movie looked so physical. Was anyone injured? We hear that people were falling down all over that glacier.
Kate: 
I think Mark fell once when we were having a race. The boys act all tough like they're not cold or anything, and then by the end of the day they're all freezing which is really funny. They kept making fun of me because I complained that I was going to fall over because I was so cold. And they were like 'well get her fuzzy boots'. But they weren't standing there in a skimpy little tank top and leather jacket. Yeah, that was a hard week, but it was actually really fun. I mean, you don't get the opportunity to shoot a movie on a glacier very often with a cast like that. And it was cool to get to be with all the other actors.
TeenHollywood: You stayed down in Whistler and got helicoptered up there. Was it cold in Whistler too?
Kate: 
No. It was in the summer and it was really, really hot. That was the hottest week, and then we'd get ready and be sweating down in our trailers and then take the helicopter up five minutes and it was snowing. It was amazing.
TeenHollywood: We heard that women are really getting into the film, shouting at the screen in test screenings. Are you personally into action movies?
Kate: Yeah, I get really into it when I go to the movies. I'll cheer and stuff like that. When I watched it, I got really into it. I kind of cheered when he killed a few people.
TeenHollywood: Did you have to research a southern gal in a small town? You are from New York but you got the accent down.
Kate: No. I didn't [research]. Does that make me really lazy (laughs)? That was just the accent I chose. I've played a Southern girl before and on Brokeback Mountain we had a coach on set, so I learned a few things from that, but no, it was just my creation of what I thought she should sound like. [Director] Antoine really wanted me to be involved in really creating her. He had me make lists of things that I could have in her house, things that the audience probably would never see. Like what sort of things would she have in her fridge. What music would she be listening to and what kind of car might she drive?
TeenHollywood: You have really been busy lately; working a lot. What are you working on now?
Kate: 
Yes, it's been a busy year. I just feel really happy that I've had the opportunity to work so much. I just finished a film called Trans Siberian, totally different than anything I've ever done. It's an independent film with Woody Harrelson and Sir Ben Kingsley. We shot it in Lithuania and the crew was Spanish and the director is American. Woody and I are both Americans, but Emily Mortimer and Sir Ben Kingsley are both British. And then there's another Spanish guy and all these Lithuanian extras. It was the most bizarre set to be on, but a really interesting dark sort of thriller. I play a Goth chick.
TeenHollywood: You don't play a teen in this film but you have recently. Do you want to keep doing that into your 20's?
Kate: I don't know. There are some really cool films out there to play an 18 or 17-year-old or whatever but I think I feel that I might be past that. In Brokeback Mountain, I played 14 and 19 within one week. So that was really fun.
TeenHollywood: What about doing plays or singing in a musical?
Kate:
Yeah, I love stage. I love it. I would love to do that so much. That's how I started. How I learned how to act was in theatre. I think the first play I did I was nine or something like that. Just community stuff, and that was really my acting school. Being from New York, I just grew up going to see Broadway shows, and it actually made me want to be an actor. So yeah, that would make me feel really amazing if I ever got back to Broadway.I would love to do a movie musical. It's so cool that they're coming back. Because I'm such a musical nerd. Yeah, that would be a dream, definitely.
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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.
