Vegan Heroes – Rooney Mara

I haven’t seen many movies with Rooney Mara and the first one I noticed her in was Pan, an adventure of Peter Pan and Captain Hook before Peter lived in Neverland and Pan and Hook were still friends. A wonderful story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and it’s available on Netflix. Like her partner Joaquin Phoenix she is vegan and an important voice for animals.

==> Click Here to Meet More Vegan Heroes <==

Although I am writing a series about vegan and vegetarian celebrities who use their fame to help animals and also other causes, I am usually not up to date about which star is dating whom. So, by the time I found out that Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara were dating, she had already given birth to their baby 😉

I don’t follow any tabloids and so I am usually the last one to hear about the latest celebrity news. I have, however, always been informed about their activism for veganism and animals, since that has always been an important topic for me.

For someone running a website, I should perhaps be more informed about the who’s with who of the people I write about, lol, but I’ve never kept up to date with stars’ personal lives. Even as a teenager, I was only interested in their music, charitable work, and/or movies. I guess I was the odd one out 😉

Sooo, let’s dive into it. Although Rooney Mara is already a well-known and admired spokesperson among vegans, how much do you know about her and what she has done so far for the animals’ cause?

A Little Background Info

Patricia Rooney Mara was born into the sports business families Rooney and Mara in 1985, being one of four children. She is the great-grandaughter of Art Rooney, the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers football franchise. For a year, she attended George Washington University and then transferred to New York University where she studied international social policy psychology and nonprofits, graduating in 2010.

Her family has a history of being involved in non-profits, so it may come as no surprise that her studies were focused on non-profit organizations. Naturally, following her family’s tradition, she created Faces of Kibera, a charity that takes care of orphans in the Kibra district in Nairobi, Kenya, providing food, shelter, and medical care.

Films

She made her film debut in Leyenda Urabana III (a slasher film) and she has also starred in Nightmare on Elm Street, the Remake (2010), and The Social Network (a movie about Mark Zuckerberg who created the social network Facebook). She was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her leading role in the critically acclaimed film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

She won more praise for her roles in the sci-fi romantic drama Her and the romantic drama Carol.

These are just some of the films she has starred in, the list is of course longer, but as you can see with the mentioned films, she chooses her roles well. Except for Nightmare on Elm Street (I’m not a fan of gory horror), all of them are on my list. I also read the book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I loved, so I guess it’s time to see the movie too.

Vegan Activism

Rooney Mara went vegan after seeing an undercover video of farm factory animal abuse. Ever since then, she has been an active spokeswoman for the animals, and both she and Joaquin Phoenix have participated in several events that were organized for animals rights.

In June 2019, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix led a march in West Hollywood to commemorate the 9th National Animal Rights Day, holding the bodies of pigs, chickens, lambs, and other animals that have died in animal farm factories and other industries that mass produce animals for human consumption.

In December 2019, in partnership with Animal Equality, she went undercover to capture footage of abominable abuse towards sows, piglets, and chickens at two animal factory farms.

“Animal Equality’s undercover investigators face great personal risk to expose what the meat industry doesn’t want you to see, and what the public has every right to know,” Animal Equality President Sharon Núñez said.

“Nothing prepares you for looking into the eyes of a mother pig whose life is to be impregnated and left in a cage until she’s slaughtered,” Mara said. “I kept thinking about my sister who just had a baby, and how beautiful that instant desire to nurture and protect your child is. I can’t imagine how awful it must be to be literally trapped and crushing your own babies and not be able to do anything about it.” (Source: VegNews)

Mara also launched her vegan fashion line Hiraeth, because she couldn’t find any combat boots that were cruelty-free.

“In an attempt to reduce our carbon footprint through importing raw materials every season, we started looking for people who create textures on plain fabrics right here in L.A.,” Mara said. (source: Vogue)

Together with Joaquin Phoenix, Mara is also producing a documentary, titled The End of Medicine, which is predicted to be released in 2021. This documentary addresses the link between animal agriculture and threats to human health, like global pandemics and antimicrobial resistance. The filmmaker, Keegan Kuhn, is known for his award-winning documentary Cowspiracy and PETA’s Test Subjects.

The End of Medicine Official Trailer from Alex Lockwood on Vimeo.

Renowned scientists are interviewed for this film that explores animal agriculture and our growing destruction of the environment, fueling these diseases.

“The science is irrefutable. Modern animal agriculture will continue to make us sick if we don’t radically change our patterns of consumption.” – Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix

Final Thoughts

Vegan power couple Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix are both using their fame and wealth to help the animal cause and shed light on the abuses that are committed in the name of consumption. I always admire people who use their spotlight to shine it on the plight of others and inspire their followers to follow their example.