Rooney Mara fake-smiles her way through her first Calvin Klein ad: uncomfortable?

It’s really worth it to go back and re-read some of the excerpts from Rooney Mara’s February 2013 Vogue cover story. Rooney was promoting Side Effects, and this was before she was named the “face” of Calvin Klein’s new fragrance. Rooney was typical Rooney – pretentious, hyper-self-aware and full of herself, especially in regards to how “over” she was with this whole “fashion” thing. Rooney told the magazine that having to participate in the fashion industry (for premieres and awards shows) is “kind of an annoying part of the job—because I’m not a model, and I don’t want to be. I didn’t try to be a style icon. I’m just not that interested in that world.” She also complained about fake-smiling for the cameras, because she wants everyone to know she’s so terribly aloof – she said: “Why should I ‘fake smile’? It feels disingenuous to me. I want to smile when something happy happens, so if I do smile, you know it’s real.”

And now take all of that and introduce it to a fat paycheck for a modeling gig! Here’s the new one-sheet ad for Downtown by Calvin Klein, with Rooney Mara as the celebrity face of the fragrance. And David Fincher (Rooney’s Prof. Higgins-like “Maker”) directed a commercial for the fragrance too. Guess what? SHE FAKE-SMILES.

The song is “Runaway” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, in case you care. As for the smiling… well, I kind of understand why she doesn’t fake-smile. She’s got no “smize”. Her fake-smile looks uncomfortable and awkward, like David Fincher is screaming “SMILE! SMILE!!” at her behind the camera.

Anyway, the commercial is not all that interesting otherwise. I don’t think much of Rooney as a model, and while I understand why Calvin Klein hired her (she’s really thin, pale and she has that androgynous look popular in Calvin Klein advertising), I think they could have done much, much better. She’s just not compelling, even with Fincher pulling the strings.

Photos courtesy of Calvin Klein and WENN.

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