Kate Mara

VANITIES

All Is VANITIES...Nothing Is Fair

SEPTEMBER

2006

AGE AND OCCUPATION 23, actor, scion of N.F.L. royalty. PROVENANCE: Bedford, New York. DOUBLE-BARRELER OLD-LINE N.F.L. LINEAGE: On her father's side, she's the granddaughter of beloved New York Giants owner Wellington Mara (who passed away last October); on her mother's side, she's the great granddaughter of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney. Who does she root for when the Giants play the Steelers? "Oh, that question is not allowed. I can't answer."

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE

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BROKEBACK BREAKTHROUGH After steady but low-profile TV work on

such shows as 24 and CSI, Mara landed a part as Alma Del Mar, the sympathetic daughter of Heath Ledger's character. "It was sort of like doing a school play where someone two years older than you is playing your grandfather." ON SINGING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM BEFORE A GIANTS GAME: "At family dinner parties, it would always come up—'Oh, sing for us!' That, to me, was the most horrifying thing. But singing in front of thousands of people was so much easier. First of all, I couldn't see anyone. Plus, I mean, come on, they're at a football game, they're drinking!" HOW HER GRANDFATHER'S DEATH MOTIVATED HER TO AUDITION FOR HER LATEST FILM, WE ARE MARSHALL. "It wasn't that long after my grandpa passed away when I started reading the script. I was crying from the third page. It's based on a true story of an enormous tragedy that strikes a town, and football is the one thing that keeps everybody glued together. [The film, directed by McG, is about the 1970 Marshall University (of West Virginia) football team, which lost half of its players and most of its coaches in a plane crash; Matthew McConaughey stars as the team's new coach, who rallies the surviving players to finish out the season.] My family, I mean, my God, we have a family reunion every Sunday because of football! So reading this script about this town that didn't want the legacy of its sons and husbands and fathers to die, that wanted to keep football alive—I just thought, 'I have to be in this, I have to tell this story.'"

KRISTA SMITH