Rooney Mara owns 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' with an authority that almost immediately places her among the better actresses of her generation -- a payoff that comes from intense pre-production work that included everything from piercings to binge-drinking. What was one detail of creating Lisbeth that might have gone under the radar? Try her merkin.

In the R-rated thriller, Mara disrobes many times -- sometimes, unfortunately not of her own volition -- meaning some wardrobe considerations were needed for her nether regions.

"There was a lot of discussion that went into my merkin for the movie, because I was naked quite a lot," Mara told Metro in a recent interview. "And I don't think a lot of people will notice all of the attention that went into that. But there was a lot of discussions around that."

For those who aren't familiar, a merkin is a pubic wig that was originally used by prostitutes dating back to the 1400s to combat pubic lice.

"In the book she's meant to have strawberry-blonde hair originally and she dyes it," Mara continued, "so we had a special merkin made that was, you know, strawberry-blonde so that it would fit."

And, scene.

[Metro via Vulture]

[Photo: AP]


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