Here's nice short
Q&A with
Carey Mulligan (where she mentions about having a romantic crush on her former
P&P co-star/friend Rupert Friend and every guy on the set, lol) from
Times Live:
Q&A with Carey Mulligan
Though not entirely a newcomer - she made her screen debut alongside
Keira Knightley in
Joe Wright's much-heralded version of
Pride & Prejudice - it will be
An Education that will be considered
Carey Mulligan's breakthrough. The 24-year-old's poignant portrayal of a wide-eyed schoolgirl is unforgettable.
Q: Were you concerned about playing a girl several years younger than you are?
A: I didn't really worry about it. You can't patronise 16-year-olds by playing them as children, because they're not. The only difference between you at 16 and when you're older is that you gain an ability to stop everything that comes into your head coming out of your mouth, and you find a way of capping your emotions.
Q: What were you like when you were 16? Were you like Jenny?
A: I wasn't as interesting as she is. What I love about her is that she is so fascinated by everything. She has such a thirst for knowledge.
Q: How did you cope with the pressure of shouldering a leading role in An Education?
A: I never felt any kind of responsibility until a week before the Sundance Film Festival. I had starred in another featured movie, The Greatest, with Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon. Suddenly, I started freaking out because of the weight of responsibility of carrying the movie. Filming it was a lot easier than filming a supporting role.
There was a buzz in advance of the movie. I hadn't seen it and I wasn't going to until I got to Sundance. I started freaking out that if everybody hated it, it would be my fault. I had anxiety dreams, very basic ones, that Geoff Gilmore, the [former] director of Sundance, put me in a car and made me leave for being disappointing. But my parents saw it and liked it, so I can breathe.
Q: What was it like working with Peter Sarsgaard on An Education?
A: Great. He's one of the best actors in the world. It's a really dangerous script, it could've swung the wrong way. The banana scene in the script . when I read it, I thought: "You can't film that!" There's no way of not making it creepy, but he manages. To him, it's logical. He's trying to be practical. There's nothing sinister about him. It takes a really good actor to do that.
Q: As in An Education, do you like older men?
A: Yes, whether they're 16 or not!
Q: Were you a late bloomer?
A: I think I was just quite shy. When I did
Pride & Prejudice,
I fell in love with everybody.
I was in love with Rupert Friend for about a month. He's one of my friends now. It was like:
"Oh, boys!" I was like: "You, you, you and you," the boom, the sound guy, lighting, everyone. I didn't end up with any of them. I had romantic crushes.
Q: With the likes of Wall Street 2 and Brighton Rock coming up, how does it feel to have so many different films on the horizon?
A: Well, I have five different hairstyles! I look different, which is a good thing.
Carey Mulligan arrives at the 62nd Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on January 30, 2010 in Century City, California.
