Mara wanted to be an actress since seeing Les Misérables at a young age; she said she “fell in love with Broadway and musicals”, and grew up watching movie musicals on television and going to Broadway shows with her mother. Mara’s first audition was for the television drama Homicide: Life on the Street. Mara also appeared on Cold Case, Boston Public, CSI: Miami and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation that year. She played Brittany, Eric “E” Murphy (Kevin Connolly)’s assistant at his talent-management company, and a potential love interest. Mara debuted theatrically in 2003 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in John Guare’s Landscape of the Body with Lili Taylor. She next appeared in the Sundance Film Festival award-winning films Joe the King (1999) and Tadpole (2002), alongside Sigourney Weaver. It was her supporting role as the daughter of Heath Ledger’s character in the Academy Award-winning Brokeback Mountain that year however, that brought her more widespread attention.
