Actress Rooney Mara fears crippling stage fright will wreck her dreams of starring in a play.

The 30 year old has appeared in a number of highly acclaimed movies, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Her, and upcoming film Carol, but she worries she'll never match her big screen success on Broadway.

"I would like to do theater, but I'm terrified," she tells Interview magazine. "I have such bad stage fright. I hate being on display like that. On stage, there are hundreds of people watching you. I would not be able to perform on stage... but I'm sure it's exhilarating."

One way Rooney deals with her nerves on a film set is to make sure she has some time away from the rest of the cast and crew, especially after long days of filming.

"I like being alone," she admits. "I need a lot of alone time as a human. And especially on a movie set when you're around people all day long. So it's actually kind of nice to go home to a hotel and be alone and unwind. But, of course, it gets lonely. I'm constantly either in hotels or somewhere else. But I like it. I might get tired of it at some point, but for now I like being a nomad."

Rooney was less inclined to head off for her usual alone time on the set of Carol, after befriending co-star Cate Blanchett. The women play secret lovers in the Todd Haynes movie and Rooney admits it wasn't hard to act besotted with the Australian.

"She's just so incredible," she gushes. "It was pretty easy to pretend to be enamoured by her. And she's quick and witty and funny. She's very confident. It's amazing. Usually it's not that great to meet your idols and work with them; it's kind of a letdown. This definitely wasn't. She's much different than I had in my head, but kind of better, in a way. It was also obviously terrifying."