Rooney Mara vs. Noomi Rapace: Who Will Be the Grittier 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo?'

3. Initially, she was too pretty to be Lisbeth. "At first, he said no," Rapace told the U.K.'s Telegraph about her first meeting with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" director Niels Arden Oplev. "It may even have been that he thought I was too good-looking. I looked feminine and soft, maybe a bit too girlie, too cute. And of course, Lisbeth had to be more of a tomboy."

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4. She kicked butt to get in killer shape. Determined to transform her feminine physique into Lisbeth's take-no-prisoners body, Rapace adopted a diet devoid of bread, pasta, potatoes, candy and alcohol. She detailed her workout routine in her February 2010 interview with the Telegraph: Thai boxing, kick boxing, and regular sessions with a Serbian trainer.

5. She's got a lot of Lisbeth in her. "When I was 14, I had piercings, I dyed my hair blonde, I looked terrible. I just wanted to get drunk every day," Rapace told the Telegraph. She got more piercings for her role in the film and insisted on doing her own stunts: " I wanted to wake up some kind of aggression in my body. ... I felt the taste of blood in my mouth sometimes."

Looks like Mara's got a lot to live up to.

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