How Rooney Mara Became ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’

It is almost hard to believe that the star of this weekend’s upcoming blockbuster, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, is actually Rooney Mara. With bleached eyebrows, chopped bangs and black hair, she went under quite a transformation to become Lisbeth for the much-anticipated film.

Runway and celebrity makeup artist Pat McGrath told Style.com exactly how she created this look from scratch.

“The moment I heard that Rooney got the part, I thought, wow, the hair has to be short and we have to bleach the brows. As soon as I saw her bone structure and her skin, I knew that I could take her look in so many different directions,” McGrath said.

And unlike runway makeup, she had plenty of time to play around with the look.

“We came up with about 200 different versions of this reddish smoky eye with many different dimensions. The trick was to take black and brown eye colors and add a tiny drop of red—that created a look that was vulnerable but hard and strong. I used a lot of CoverGirl LiquilineBlast in Black Fire and Brown Blaze, then highlighted with CoverGirl Intense ShadowBlast in Brown Bling. For the touch of red, I smudged in Dolce & Gabbana The Eyeshadow Quad in Vulcano—the shade on the lower left side—and CoverGirl Eye Enhancers 1-Kit Eyeshadow in Forever Fig.”

To read the full interview, check out style.com.