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"    Photo: Courtesy of Melinda Sue Gordon for Netflix   Justin Timberlake, Heath Ledger, James Franco\u2013Kate Mara has already worked with an impressive list of young actors. In her new project, House of Cards, Mara is superb as she matches wits with the formidable Kevin Spacey. We chatted with Mara last night at a Tribeca Grand Hotel cocktail party celebrating House of Cards, which premieres tonight on Netflix. In its new foray into original programming, Netflix hits it out of the park with a first-rate, HBO-quality series. Written by Beau Willimon (The Ides of March), the first two episodes are directed by David Fincher (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), with other acclaimed directors\u2014including Joel Schumacher and James Foley\u2014helming the first season&amp;#039;s other eleven episodes.     Spacey and Robin Wright are outstanding as a cunning congressman and his equally ruthless wife. Snubbed in his secretary of state bid and hell-bent on retribution, Spacey masterminds the downfall of the newly-elected president by manipulating the media (George Stephanopoulos and several other CNN pundits have cameos). Mara plays an ambitious reporter for the Washington Herald (the same fictional newspaper Denzel Washington wrote for in The Pelican Brief). Hungry to make a national name for herself, Mara accepts incriminating leaked documents from Spacey, playing Carl Bernstein to Spacey&amp;#039;s Deep Throat. The effect is a blend of The West Wing meets All the President&amp;#039;s Men. Their rapid-fire banter, Willimon&amp;#039;s meticulous plotting and Fincher&amp;#039;s moody, jittery atmosphere make for a riveting thriller. We asked Mara (who is dating Max Minghella) about some of the men in her professional life, starting with Fincher, who directed her younger sister, Rooney, in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: On David Fincher: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d known him from The Social Network, because my sister and a bunch of my friends were in that, so I met him then. We became friends throughout the Dragon Tattoo because it was such a long shoot, and [I] became close with his family, so we knew each other socially. They were still shooting that film when I read the House of Cards script and fell in love with the role of Zoe Barnes. Zoe&amp;#039;s morals are different than mine, but I related to her passion for her job and her drive. I called my sister and told her how amazing David&amp;#039;s new project was and that I really wanted the part. Two months later David asked me to play the role. So I owe a little bit of that to my sister.&amp;quot; On Kevin Spacey: &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s really prepared and also super playful and open to trying whatever. He&amp;#039;s hilarious, which is helpful because we have a lot of difficult scenes, and we laughed through a lot of it.&amp;quot; On working with Justin Timberlake in The Open Road: &amp;quot;Justin is crazy-talented, in so many ways, and really smart. His creativity is really impressive. I was a fan of his before and working with him was really fun because he has an amazing sense of humor. I&amp;#039;m just constantly impressed by him. When we were rehearsing, Justin, Jeff Bridges, and I all got to stay at Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson&amp;#039;s house for a weekend, and Justin and Jeff were playing guitar every night and singing. It was incredible.&amp;quot; On starring alongside James Franco in 127 Hours: &amp;quot;[He&amp;#039;s] \u00FCber-quirky, and he loves to read. In between shooting every single scene, he was reading a book. I don&amp;#039;t even know how many books he read during that movie. I also don&amp;#039;t know how he did the kind of intense work that he did on that film, while studying at the same time!&amp;quot; On filming with Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain: &amp;quot;I was just four years younger than him, and I was playing his daughter, which is crazy. So beforehand, I was a little bit nervous about that. I thought, how are we going to make it believable? Are people going to laugh? But he was so genius that he never made me feel odd about it during the scenes. And Ang Lee is such an incredible filmmaker. I was young, and it was my first big movie. I was afraid that I was going to get fired every day because Ang is very specific. Heath was super-comforting. He said, &amp;#039;Oh no, this is how he is with everyone.&amp;#039; Heath was very sweet with me. He was lovely in every single way.&amp;quot; To watch House of Cards click here.  Photo: Courtesy of Melinda Sue Gordon for Netflix  Photo: Courtesy of Melinda Sue Gordon for Netflix   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/news/a22683/kate-mara-interview/>