Kate Mara, a “Very Special” First With Rooney Mara, and a New Mystery That Starts With Loss

At the Los Angeles premiere of Imperfect Women on March 10 (ET), Kate Mara stood in the familiar churn of a red-carpet night—cameras, quick greetings, and the compressed time of interviews—yet she kept returning to something quieter: the feeling of finally sharing a film set with her sister. It was, she said, “very special. ”

What did Kate Mara say about filming her first movie with Rooney Mara?

Kate Mara described shooting her first movie with her sister, Rooney Mara, as a milestone that felt personal as much as professional. The pair will star as twin siblings Jean and Joan Holbrooke in the upcoming film Bucking Fastard, directed by Werner Herzog. Kate Mara called Herzog a “dream director” for both of them, and said the script was unlike anything they had ever read.

“We’re basically playing the same person, ” she said, explaining why the decision to say yes felt immediate. In the film’s synopsis, the twins are depicted as so closely entwined that they speak in unison, love the same man, and share the same dreams. In search of an imaginary land—the Orkneys, where true love is possible—they begin digging a tunnel through an entire mountain range. The synopsis notes the film is partially set in Ireland.

Kate Mara also said working together brought the sisters closer. “We didn’t want it to end, ” she said of their time on set, describing the experience as unlike anything else she has had.

Why does this sister-to-sister milestone matter beyond the movie itself?

Film sets can magnify relationships: long days, repeated takes, the strange intimacy of pretending in front of strangers. When siblings work together, that pressure can sharpen into rivalry—or, as Kate Mara has framed it over time, into a rare kind of partnership.

In a 2017 interview on ABC News’ Popcorn with Peter Travers, Kate Mara recalled what it felt like to be the only one in the acting world for years. She said that from the time she was 14 until Rooney Mara began acting when Kate was 20 or 21, she did not have anyone to share the “craziness” with. Once Rooney started, Kate said, they lived together in her apartment for the first year or two. They went to auditions, came home, and talked through the terror of certain rooms and the absurdity of others—an everyday debrief that made the work feel less solitary.

In a 2016 interview with , Kate Mara addressed the question of rivalry more directly. She said she felt grateful that they were both “living our dreams successfully, ” and that being able to share that with someone she grew up with felt “really special. ” On whether they had ever been up for the same job, she said their agents would never tell them, and that she did not think it had happened.

Seen against those earlier reflections, Bucking Fastard is not only a professional first. It is the continuation of a long-running, practical kind of closeness: two people who understand the same auditions, the same anxieties, the same stakes—and now, the same call sheet.

What is known about Bucking Fastard, and what does the first-look image show?

Bucking Fastard pairs the sisters as twins Jean and Joan Holbrooke. Alongside them, the cast includes Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson. A first-look image shows the two sisters wearing white flowing dresses, with veils attached to flower headbands—costuming that visually reinforces the story’s premise of near-mirrored identity.

The synopsis sketches a relationship that is almost fused: the twins speak in unison, love the same man, and share the same dreams. Their search for an imaginary place called the Orkneys—described as a land where true love is possible—pushes them into an extreme act of belief, digging a tunnel through an entire mountain range. The film is partially set in Ireland.

Kate Mara’s comments at the premiere kept the emphasis on the interior experience: the script’s strangeness, the sense of two performers “playing the same person, ” and the feeling that working together intensified their bond rather than testing it.

How does Imperfect Women place Kate Mara at the center of a different kind of story?

While Bucking Fastard is anchored in a twin-like union, Imperfect Women begins from rupture. In the series, Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Kate Mara play Eleanor, Mary, and Nancy, three close friends who go out for birthday drinks one night—after which Nancy ends up dead. The story’s mystery asks who killed her, and the narrative unfolds through flashbacks and narrated insights.

Imperfect Women is based on the novel by Araminta Hall, with Annie Weisman serving as showrunner. The series leans into genre familiarity—wealth, secrets, and a polished surface—but it also pushes into the emotional cost of death. The premise treats the murder not only as a puzzle but as what one review described as a psychological wound, focusing on grief’s guilt, rage, and relentless second-guessing, alongside the mechanics of a whodunit.

In that sense, Kate Mara is moving between two projects that mirror opposite human conditions: one shaped by closeness and shared language, another defined by the sudden absence of someone who was part of a trio’s everyday life.

Image caption (alt text): Kate Mara speaks about a “very special” first-time film set experience with sister Rooney Mara at the Los Angeles premiere of Imperfect Women.