While filming a scene in a diner, the cast and crew were surprised to find out that Ellen Nyqvist, daughter of Michael Nyqvist, the first actor to play Mikael Blomkvist, was working there as a waitress while attending school. Upon finding out, they wrote in a few extra lines for her, allowing her to interact with her father's successor, Daniel Craig.
Stellan Skarsgård remarked that this was the first time in twenty years that he was able to sleep in his own bed while shooting a movie, since it was filmed in his hometown of Stockholm.
The piercings (including multiple ear, eyebrow, and nipple piercings) that Rooney Mara sports as Lisbeth Salander are real, not cosmetic simulations. Mara got the piercings, including her nipple piercing. "It was actually not that painful," she told Allure. "I thought, She has it in the book, and she should have it [in the movie]. Because of all the tattoos and the makeup and the piercings and the physical transformations my body has to go through, it would always feel sort of like I was in costume, even if I was naked. It just felt like a good one to get; a necessary one to get." The ear, nose, eyebrow, and lip piercings were removed after shooting completed, but she kept the right nipple piercing for possible sequels. "It's not something I want to ever get re-pierced," she said. "So I'm going to keep it in."
Daniel Craig gained weight for his role as Mikael Blomqvist to remind himself and the audience that he was portraying a journalist, not James Bond, and wanted to appear as normal as possible.
The film was released on December 20, exactly where the novel begins in chapter one.
Peter Haber: Spokesperson for Wennerström in a brief news clip. Haber played Martin Vanger in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009).