I’m incredibly excited for David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for a multitude of reasons. Yes, it’s the latest film from one of the greatest working directors today, but it’s also a $90 million R-rated adult drama. This is a tentpole movie made specifically for adults, people. Hot on the heels of the cast images that were released yesterday and the clips from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score that hit today, actress Rooney Mara recently talked a bit about the film. She spoke specifically about the grueling audition process, the NSFW poster, and filming the crucial rape scene in the film. Hit the jump to see what she had to say.Speaking with EW as part of their upcoming Fall Movie Preview, Mara was asked about the intense audition process that dragged on for two months, leaving the actress exhausted and none too pleased with Fincher:

“At that point I was just super frustrated. I was like, ‘You have to decide. Either you think I’m the girl or you don’t. There’s not much more I can do to prove it to you.’ I went in there sort of ready to fight. I was pissed. But David sat me down and gave me this long speech about the part. Then he handed me his iPad, and it had the press release on it. He said, ‘I’m prepared to send this out. You have half an hour to let me know if you want the part.’”

Mara also commented on that controversial NSFW poster for the film:

“I was supportive of it. I understand why there was a lot of controversy. People have a hard time with strong females and with nudity. But I think had I been doing something incredibly violent on the poster, people wouldn’t have had a problem with it. That sort of says a lot about the world that we live in. It’s just a teaser poster. I think it did just that. It teased people.”

Finally, Mara talked about the 16-hour days they spent filming the crucial rape scene from the book:

“It was incredibly intense. We did it all in a week — the week of Valentine’s Day, oddly enough. We were working 16 hours a day, and it was really, really challenging, not just emotionally but physically. But it’s such an important scene. We wanted to do everything we could to get that right.”

All in all, I think the film’s tagline “The Feel Bad Movie of Christmas” pretty much sums up Fincher’s take. Sony is incredibly ballsy to have spent so much money on such adult-fare, and I’m hoping audiences turn out so we’ll get to see Fincher and Co. tackle Stieg Larsson’s other two books in the Millennium Trilogy. The film stars Mara, Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, Christopher Plummer, and Joley Richardson. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opens December 21st.