The actress opened up to ET about Wright taking on the lead role of the Netflix political drama following Kevin Spacey's downfall.
Kate Mara is looking forward to Robin Wright's upcoming term in office as President of the United States on House of Cards.
The actress spoke with ET's Courtney Tezeno at the premiere of her new film, Chappaquiddick, in Los Angeles on Wednesday, and opened up about Wright taking over the lead role on the show following Kevin Spacey's termination.
"I love Robin! She has always been one of my favorite actresses of all time so I think she's been sort of gearing up to take over for a long time," Mara, 35, shared. "Her character, and also Robin in real life, is just such an incredible force. So I'm excited to see it!"
On House of Cards, Mara played ambitious reporter Zoe Barnes during the first season of the show, until her character's murder during the premiere of the second season at the hands of Spacey's Frank Underwood. Wright plays Frank's uncompromising and brilliant wife, Claire Underwood.
Over the course of five seasons, Frank gets elected to the oval office, and through his machinations, he gets re-elected with Claire as his Vice President. As the fifth season of the political drama came to an end, Frank resigned in disgrace after a series of scandals, leaving Claire as the first female President of the United States.
The show's fifth season finale ended up serving as an unexpected mirror to Spacey's real-life downfall -- following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment spanning the last three decades which lead to Netflix cutting ties with the once-loved star -- and Wright's new position as the show's lead.
Wright's repositioning is also seen by many as a step in the right direction when it comes to Hollywood creating better, richer roles for women, both in television and film.
Mara -- who has been very outspoken in the past about the lack of well-written and developed female roles for actresses -- said she thinks women in the industry "still probably have a long way to go," but she feels optimistic.
"I think the fact that everybody is so aware of it and it's definitely in our conversations today, [so] I think that's a good sign for sure," she explained.
As for Mara's latest film, Chappaquiddick, she once again plays a tragically ill-fated woman at the heart of a political conspiracy.
The film tells the real-life 1969 traffic accident involving U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and a 28-year-old woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, who was the passenger in his car when he inadvertently drove off the side of a bridge. Kopechne drowned in the car while Kennedy managed to swim to safety and ended up fleeing from the scene without reporting the incident to police for several hours.
In the film, which recounts the high-profile investigation into the death and the subsequent scandal, Mara stars as Kopechne, and the actress told ET why she felt like she wanted to tell the young woman's often forgotten tale.
"I think it's important to tell these kinds of stories for a lot of the younger people that don't know anything about this time period and this specific incident," Mara said. "I think it's important to share and help educate everybody."
Chappaquiddick comes out in theaters April 6.
For more on House of Cards' hotly anticipated sixth and final season, check out the video below.
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