Rooney Mara Says Making “Bucking Fastard” with Sister Kate Mara Was a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Experience

Nigel SmithThu, September 3, 2026 at 2:48 PM UTC

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Rooney Mara and Kate Mara in VeniceCredit: JB Lacroix/FilmMagicThe sisters play siblings who speak in unison in the new film, which world premieres at the Venice Film Festival -

Rooney and Kate Mara star as intertwined twins in Werner Herzog’s new film Bucking Fastard

The sisters describe their on-screen chemistry as natural, drawing from their lifelong bond and shared childhood experiences

The film, premiering at the Venice Film Festival, explores the twins’ unique connection and how the world reacts to them

Rooney Mara and Kate Mara are opening up about sharing the screen for the first time in their new film, Bucking Fastard.

Making its world premiere in competition at the 83rd Venice Film Festival, the film from director Werner Herzog sees the real-life sisters bring their sibling bond to the screen as they play deeply intertwined twins Jean and Joan Holbrooke.

During a press conference for the film on Thursday, Sept. 3, Rooney, 41, admitted she found the project “very daunting” because of “the idea that we were playing this same person.”

“But I think we found pretty quickly that having a lifetime together and all this history and childhood playing together, there was just an unspoken world between us that we didn’t have to work very hard to create at all,” Rooney continued. “Once we found our flow together, we had so much fun and [it was a] very once-in-a-lifetime, very unique experience.”

Rooney Mara and Kate Mara in VeniceCredit: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty

Kate, 43, added, “It felt very much like once we figured out the rhythm of our speaking unison, it felt almost like a song, like we had this unspoken sort of rhythm together and it was very musical. And it just sort of happened quite naturally.”

In its synopsis, the Venice Film Festival describes Bucking Fastard as “a film about two sisters, Jean and Joan Holbrooke, who are so close to each other that they speak in unison, love the same man, and have the same dreams. They even make the same slip of tongue in unison. We cannot see the world as they see it, but we do see how the world reacts to them – through the courts and the press, through those that want to help and those who want to use them, through the eyes of beasts both tame and wild, and even through their own echoes in the core of the earth.”

The film also stars Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson.

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Kate previously opened up about bonding with Rooney over acting early in their careers during a 2017 interview on ABC News’ Popcorn with Peter Travers.

“From the time I was 14 until, I think, my sister started acting when I was 20 or 21, I didn’t have someone to share this craziness with,” the Fantastic Four actress said. “So when she became an actor, we actually lived together in my apartment for the first year or two.”

Bucking FastardCredit: Front Row Films

During that time, the sisters bonded over their auditions — and even negative reviews of their films — which helped bring them closer.

“We would both go on auditions and come home and talk about the terror of certain auditions and funny stories, and so it just became something super special that you can actually bond with a sibling over, which is very rare,” she explained.

Kate is best known for starring in the first season of House of Cards and 2015’s Fantastic Four, while Rooney earned two Oscar nominations for 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and 2015’s Carol.

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The 83rd Venice International Film Festival runs from Sept. 2 to Sept. 12.

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