Rooney Mara has claimed that she never wanted her role in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo actress played Nancy Holbrook in the 2010 horror film remake, a part which she confessed that she deliberately tried to sabotage her chances of getting during the audition process.

"You kind of learn to self-sabotage with things you don't want to get. Sometimes you don't want to get something but you do a really good job and you get in anyway," Mara told Entertainment Weekly.

"That's kind of [what happened] with A Nightmare on Elm Street - I didn't even really want it. And then I went in [to audition] and I was like, [whispering] 'F**k. I definitely got that'."

Mara recently slammed her appearance on Law & Order: SVU, calling it "awful" and "stupid", though she later clarified the insult.

The 26-year-old has said that she is not ready for fame and insisted that she will never "embrace the limelight".