Kate Mara has held her own as an actress just fine, thank you very much. Her turn on House of Cards made her a hot topic of conversation. Her role alongside Johnny Depp in Transcendence may not have been the best way to spend that new-found capital, but she survived.

Despite her up and coming status in Hollywood, Kate Mara still gets asked the same question over and over: Is there much of a competitive streak between her and her famous sister Rooney Mara?

Kata Mara’s sister Rooney is making news of her own lately after a lesbian scene in a film with Cate Blanchett. Sorry to say, that might overshadow the going-downtown scene Kate shared with Kevin Spacey.

But Kate Mara insists there is no competition between her and her sister. She told Glamour magazine recently:

”The other thing I’ve learned to deal with? People always want to know: ‘Is there competition between you and your sister?’ Luckily there isn’t.”

Even though her competition is not with her sister, Kate Mara does admit that Hollywood is an incredibly competitive place.

“But rivalry is an industrywide obsession – and it’s toxic. I have to remind myself that just because a person got a job I wanted, it doesn’t make me any ‘less than.’ When I’m at my strongest mentally, I don’t ever compare myself to others.”

Kate Mara explains that rivalry among actresses rears its head when you are going for a part and don’t get cast.

”As an actor 90 percent of the time, you’re getting told, ‘No, sorry, you’re not right.’ I don’t know that you ever really get used to that. I’m definitely better than I was; now if I don’t get a part, I believe it’s because that ‘no’ will open up my time for a role or experience I was meant to have.”

Regardless of what roles she gets or doesn’t get, she believes she is successful for a simple reason.

”I’ve always felt blessed to be doing what I love, and that’s why I consider myself successful.”