Rooney Mara is happy to "suffer for her art".

The 'Una' actress has admitted she would happily take on an interesting role, even if she knew it would be hard to make, because there is a lot to learn about having an "awful" movie-making experience.

Speaking to Empire magazine, she said: "There's something to be said about having an awful experience. You learn so much about yourself when you have a challenging experience.

"But I guess it depends in what kind of way it would be a bad experience. There are certain things I don't want to compromise on. But I'm not against suffering for your art!"

When it comes to choosing her roles, the 32-year-old actress often selects her projects based on the director, even if it isn't a part she feels particularly "drawn" to.

She explained: "It's really just a feeling. I mean, I'm very filmmaker-driven.

"The director to me is so vital. I've done things where I'm not super-drawn to the part, but I really want to work with the director. So it's just different. Usually it's just a feeling I have when I read something."

Rooney has recently been working on 'A Ghost Story' alongside Casey Affleck and she had a great time filming the production because it was a "secret" shoot.

She explained: "With 'A Ghost Story', I thought the script was beautiful. David [Lowery] is such a good writer.

"And it just sounded like a lot of fun, making something with your friends that no-one else really knows about.

"He emailed me, 'I'm doing this thing. No-one knows about it, not even my agent. I just wanna make something again.'

"It was really fun, five to six days of shooting for me. Such a small crew. So unofficial."