Mara sisters speak as one in Herzog's Venice contender

Sisters Rooney and ‌Kate ​Mara said years of shared experiences helped them master a unique acting challenge: speaking in perfect unison for Werner Herzog's "Bucking Fastard", which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

In the film, inspired by ‌real-life British twins, the Mara sisters play Jean and Joan Holbrooke, whose extraordinary closeness has them speaking in perfect synchrony, share the same dreams and fall in love with the same man. It is the first time the two have acted together on screen.

"We had two weeks of rehearsal ‌set up and me and Kate were together before that because we were quite nervous," Rooney Mara told Reuters. But Herzog said he ‌was so impressed by what he saw that he cut the rehearsal period to just five days.

"I said, 'No more. I'm completely confident it's going to be wonderful. Stop this, shut up, we'll meet in Ireland in front of my camera'," he told Reuters. "It's unprecedented what they are doing. We have not seen anything like this in film ⁠history, and ​I doubt that we will ⁠see anything like this in the foreseeable future again," he added.

MUSICAL SYNCHRONISATION Rooney Mara, best known for her roles in "The Social Network" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," said ⁠all their time spent together gave the sisters an instant shorthand that clicked into place when the cameras rolled.

"There was just an unspoken world between us ​that we didn't have to work very hard to create at all. I've never laughed so much, it was a very once-in-a-lifetime, ⁠unique experience." Kate Mara, whose credits include "House of Cards" and "24", said speaking in synchronisation "felt almost like a song".

The film shows the two sisters falling in love with the same man, ⁠played ​by Orlando Bloom. When he ditches them for another woman, he has to take out a restraining order to protect himself from their fury. Bloom told Reuters it was uncanny acting alongside his co-stars. "They were almost like they were breathing together, dreaming together, loving together, thinking together," ⁠he said.

"The movie feels like a poem, and they were the central focus that we were kind of marvelling at." Herzog is no ⁠stranger to Venice. The acclaimed German director, ⁠whose films include "Aguirre, the Wrath of God", "Fitzcarraldo" and "Grizzly Man", premiered "Scream of Stone" at the festival in 1991 and has returned several times since with both fiction films and documentaries.

"Bucking Fastard" is one of 21 ‌films competing for Venice's Golden ‌Lion award, which will be presented on September 12. (Writing by Crispian ​Balmer; Editing by Hugh Lawson)