{"id":615251,"date":"2026-09-05T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615251\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:22:09","slug":"werner-herzog-kate-and-rooney-mara-talk-bucking-fastard-venice-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615251\/","title":{"rendered":"Werner Herzog Kate and Rooney Mara Talk Bucking Fastard Venice 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWerner Herzog<\/a> has a bit of a wild reputation<\/a>. He\u2019d like to set the record straight. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m the most organized, the most focused, the most friendly person you will ever see on a set,\u201d the German director says. \u201cPeriod.\u201d Everything else, he adds, is \u201cthe craze of media who want to create a Werner Herzog that is a fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is, of course, the man who hauled a 320-ton steamship over a hill in the Peruvian jungle for Fitzcarraldo (1982), and, on the shoot of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), also in the jungle, threatened to kill his star Klaus Kinski if he walked away from the film [as recounted by Herzog himself in his 1999 documentary My Best Fiend.] This is the man who ate his own shoe after losing a bet to Errol Morris, and who once carried on with a BBC interview after being hit by an air rifle, calling it \u201cnot a significant bullet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut when Herzog came calling, Kate and Rooney Mara<\/a> signed up anyway.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Mara sisters play the leads in Herzog\u2019s Bucking Fastard<\/a><\/a>, as Jean and Joan Holbrooke, Irish sisters who speak, think and move in unison, share the same dreams and love the same man. After their neighbor and former lover Gareth Mulroney (Orlando Bloom) marries someone else, the sisters embark on a campaign of arson, ambush and assorted misdemeanors to win him back, become tabloid fixtures and are assigned a social worker (Domhnall Gleeson) to help them adapt to modern life. <\/p>\n

\n\tThey eventually decamp to Ireland\u2019s West Coast to live with their widowed aunt (Marion O\u2019Dwyer), where they begin chipping away at a cave in a mountain range, convinced the tunnel will lead them to the Orkney Islands, in their minds a mythical place where true love is possible.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is loosely inspired by Freda and Greta Chaplin, identical twins from York, in northern England, who spoke in unison and became widely known after a 1981 court case made them tabloid sensations. HanWay Films is handling worldwide sales.<\/p>\n

\n\tBucking Fastard premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival Thursday night<\/a>, drawing a warm six-and-a-half-minute standing ovation for Herzog and his cast. <\/p>\n

\n\tSitting down with THR ahead of the premiere, Herzog and the Maras spoke about their synchronized performance, the film\u2019s surprising vein of \u201cBavarian humor\u201d and Herzog life lessons in \u201creally not giving a shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you both want to work with Werner Herzog?<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA For every reason under the sun. I would have loved to have just been a PA on the set, just to watch him in action. It\u2019s one of the greatest experiences one can have.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA<\/a> I\u2019ve been fascinated by the way Werner makes films ever since I saw one of his documentaries, so to get to work on a film with him has always been a dream. And then to read his script about these sisters and their bond and this love story was incredibly magical.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are a lot of stories about the extremes you have gone to on films. Did you have any trepidation?<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA Zero trepidation about that. The scariest thing for us was just: How are we going to do this? How are we going to do an entire film in unison and in sync in that way? But I had zero worries about working with Werner.<\/p>\n

\n\tWERNER HERZOG I can tell you why: because I\u2019m the most organized, the most focused, the most friendly person you will ever see on a set. Period. Everything you\u2019re hinting at is the craze of media who want to create a Werner Herzog that is a fiction.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA It\u2019s passion. To me, that\u2019s one of the most important things you need in a director \u2014 passion, and somebody who cares deeply about filmmaking.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want the two Mara sisters for this dual role?<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG I had a story, and I thought about whether it should be twins. And I found the two sisters, and it was immediately clear this was finally a solution. I wrote the screenplay very quickly, in five days, and we were done with pre-production in five, six weeks and started to film. We had some rehearsal time, the first time in my life, in all of my films, that there was enough money to do rehearsals. We had two weeks. After a week, I said, \u201cStop this. Meet me in front of my camera. You\u2019re so good. Stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Bucking Fastard\u2019 with Rooney Mara, Kate Mara <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Lena Herzog<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking and moving simultaneously is central to the performances. How did you find a way to do that as actors?<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA It felt very much like a song, like a rhythm. Once we figured out what that song was and what the rhythm was \u2014 which happened way faster than we thought it would \u2014 it just made sense to us. It was an unspoken sort of thing. Rooney and I worked a lot together before working with Werner, trying to find our tricks.<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA We had a voice coach we worked with before Werner, who gave us tips, exercises we did together. We weren\u2019t really sure until we got into rehearsal with Werner. We were like, \u201cWhat the hell are we doing? What is this?\u201d And then when we started doing it in front of him, he liked it so much. It flowed more naturally than we had anticipated.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG By the way, we did very few takes. I would shoot two or three takes, and that was normally it. Sometimes a single take for a very long scene. Period. I\u2019m a one-camera guy. I do hardly any coverage. There was no coverage. Two shots, and that was it. Two takes.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA We would be done hours early sometimes.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG We finished at 3 p.m., 3:30 in the afternoon. We could have gone until 5, 6, 7 without overtime, and I said, \u201cLet\u2019s wrap it.\u201d I\u2019m not exaggerating, and the film was done under schedule and under budget.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve compared this film thematically to Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man. Where do you see the connection?<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG We shouldn\u2019t overdo the connections. But with Fitzcarraldo, it is evident: There is a great dream about opera in the jungle, and for that the protagonist moves a big ship over a mountain in the jungle. Here in this film, it\u2019s the dream of an ideal country, which doesn\u2019t really exist, the Orkneys, where real love is possible \u2014 and you would rather dig a tunnel through a whole mountain range to find this country. Everybody should dig a tunnel. Every grown-up man should move a ship over a mountain. Every grown-up woman should dig a tunnel through a mountain range. It\u2019s very simple: Just go out and do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat seems to have been your attitude throughout your career, given that you didn\u2019t have a film education.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG Yes, but I\u2019m not acting blindly. I know what I\u2019m doing. I know that I\u2019m a poet. I dream big, but I do the doable, and that\u2019s what I try to preach to young filmmakers. Yes, dream big, but please do the doable. Moving a ship over a mountain is doable. Digging a tunnel through a mountain is also doable. Do that.<\/p>\n

Werner Herzog shares his thoughts on Elon Musk’s mission to Mars: “I am very critical of his idea of colonizing Mars with a million people. That’s a pipe dream. We will have astronauts there, a handful, fine. But we should not colonize there. That’s an obscenity.” pic.twitter.com\/B80O8jQgJG<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) September 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tWhat surprised you about working with him?<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA The specificity. For some reason I imagined things would be a little bit more wild and freewheeling. I didn\u2019t imagine the precision and specificity with which Werner works.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG I interrupt and say no. Mid-take.<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA Mid-take. Because you had something specific in mind.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA Agreed.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou founded your own Rogue Film School, and you have an audience among very young, up-and-coming filmmakers. Why do you think that is?<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG It\u2019s not film students alone, it\u2019s audiences in general. They are very young. I started an Instagram account \u2014 my younger son does it, he knows how \u2014 and he tells me 85 percent of those who read it and love it are between 15 and 20 years old. Because my films are now available on the internet, on streaming platforms, all of a sudden, from one day to the next, there are 800,000 people who speak about one film of mine. There\u2019s a film club in, God knows, Missoula, Montana, by 15-year-olds, about my films. The answer is simple: They are just very good, and they discover it.<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA I think it\u2019s also that you are a singular human being. You are yourself. You really don\u2019t give a shit. You march to the beat of your own drum so thoroughly, and people love that because that\u2019s what we all want to do. That\u2019s what we all aspire to do. And so many of us are not doing that. <\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG But I\u2019m just a poet.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is the first time you two have appeared on screen together. Why did it take this long?<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA It\u2019s very difficult to find two roles that are equally interesting and good in a film, and then also find a director that we both passionately want to work with. We found all those things in this. It was really simple. Nothing came our way before that made sense in all areas. We couldn\u2019t really believe it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like to perform together as sisters?<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA It was a very surreal experience. Strange, because it\u2019s not like we were in scenes playing off of one another the way you normally would with a scene partner. We were playing the same thing. There\u2019s maybe only one scene, and a few moments other than that, where we\u2019re even looking at each other. We are focused on the same thing. It\u2019s really one performance.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA We\u2019re experiencing the other actor that we\u2019re in a scene with together. So it\u2019s impossible to compare it to anything else. We\u2019ve never had an experience like that before. It\u2019s great for codependency.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo you\u2019re jointly forming a single performance rather than doing two separate ones.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA It\u2019s as collaborative as you could possibly be.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG It\u2019s unique. We haven\u2019t seen anything like this in film history.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFrom left: Rooney and Kate Mara in \u2018Bucking Fastard.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGateway to Orkney<\/p>\n

\n\tYou are best known for collaborations with male actors \u2014 Klaus Kinski, Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage. You\u2019ve had a few leading female roles, but not that many. Was the approach different with these two actresses?<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG With every single one, with every single actor, I speak differently. I act differently. I bring them into the film, make them give the inner life of them onto a screen. There\u2019s no school. And by the way, the greatest with whom I ever worked is the unknown soldier of cinema, Bruno S., who plays a leading part in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser and in Stroszek. He\u2019s the deepest, most tragic one with whom I ever worked. All of the others are actors. He was not.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is funnier than some might expect.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG Thank you that you saw it. There\u2019s always humor in my films, and it came across, apparently. Sometimes it\u2019s a dark humor. Sometimes it\u2019s a very Bavarian humor that even Germans wouldn\u2019t understand. Americans easier. Mexicans, yes, they immediately get it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill that surprise audiences?<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA Werner is one of the funniest people. If you know him and his work, or if you watch him speak about anything, he\u2019s got the greatest sense of humor.<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA We had so much fun. I laughed more than I have in years making this film. We had so many fun moments.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid it live up to the myth of Werner Herzog?<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA It exceeded it.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG But from the beginning I told them, I have to load an entire film onto these two shoulders, so that\u2019s big. Are you ready for that? And of course they were. I\u2019m a lucky man that they were immediately ready. Yes, we will carry that.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou are often drawn to extreme characters, figures who exist outside of normal social structures. Is that something you see in yourself?<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG They\u2019re not really borderline. Even in Bucking Fastard, I don\u2019t see them as borderline. They make a lot of sense to me. It\u2019s only unusual that they have apparently one dream together, one love for an undeserving man, and they speak in unison. So that\u2019s unusual. But otherwise, they\u2019re the most normal human creatures for me that you can imagine. They do the thing we all should do.<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA I agree. I think everyone else is crazy. Being willing to show up every day and dig a tunnel through a mountain for love \u2014 that\u2019s not crazy. Everyone else is crazy for not wanting to do that.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG Thank you for saying that, because I keep saying I\u2019m the only filmmaker who is clinically sane. All the rest is not really right.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat can the rest of the film business learn from how he works?<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA There\u2019s so much you could learn from Werner. Again, it\u2019s that willingness to show up as yourself and not be swayed by any of the noise. To have that tunnel vision of, this is who I am, and this is what I\u2019m doing, and this is how I do it, and I\u2019m a poet, period.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA It\u2019s very inspiring to watch.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG The work on my set is like open-heart surgery, only in whispers, going straight for the essential and nothing else. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA You can hear a whisper from a mile away, and he will tell you so. The set is very quiet, which is great.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG No cell phones, no video playout, one camera, very few takes. I do the slate.<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA And almost no crew. He does the slate. He\u2019s in there, crawling around within the scene. It\u2019s very special.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve shot in the jungle, the desert, the Arctic Circle, and you\u2019re still making films in your 80s. Where do you still want to explore?<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG I have my next film almost finished. I need a week more and my next film will be finished, so I\u2019m way beyond Bucking Fastard. I\u2019m also finishing a book at Taschen, the publishing house, of photos from my films. So I\u2019m still working a lot. I love what I do.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs the dream still to go to space and make a film there?<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA What? You want to go to space?<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG Yes, I would like to be out there. I have tried. I spoke to NASA, but they didn\u2019t take me. And then there is a Japanese billionaire who is planning a spaceship around the moon, without landing, returning \u2014 he refused to take me on board.<\/p>\n

\n\tROONEY MARA We should set up an online petition<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG So let\u2019s wait. Let\u2019s wait for the rocket for me alone. I\u2019ll be on board.<\/p>\n

\n\tKATE MARA If anyone can do it, you can.<\/p>\n

\n\tHERZOG By the way, Elon Musk promised me that if he goes on a mission to Mars, I would be on board. But God knows when that\u2019s happening, and I am very critical of his idea of colonizing Mars with a million people. That\u2019s a pipe dream. We will have astronauts there, a handful at a time, and they will explore, but we should not colonize. That\u2019s an obscenity. We should rather keep this planet inhabitable.<\/p>\n