British actress CAREY MULLIGAN (And When Did You Last See Your Father?, Pride & Prejudice) talks about drama school auditions, teenage rebellion, and how she’s coping with life in the limelight after her first starring role in An Education.
MMM: You were 22 when you made the film, so how did you find getting back into the mindset of a 16-year-old?
Mulligan: I’ve always played younger parts. When I was 19, I played a 14-year-old. So I’ve always gone back 4 or 5 years, and it’s really rare that I play an adult! And when you put on a school uniform and don’t wear any make-up and wear your hair a certain way, you feel very young. And I was around 16-year-old extras. And the part was written so well that I understood her.
Carey Mulligan as 16-year-old schoolgirl Jenny
MMM: What were you like as a teenager? Were you rebellious like your character Jenny?
Mulligan: I was quite straight-laced. I was quite academic until I was about 14 and then I went to boarding school where I had the opportunity to continue to be very academic, but got less interested in it and became more involved in acting.
And then when I was applying for universities I used a couple of places on my UCAS [UK University & Colleges Admissions Service] form to apply for drama school, without telling anyone, but didn’t get into drama school. But that was the most rebellious thing I did, but I was still applying to go to higher education, so there wasn’t anything dreadful. So, I was pretty dull really.
MMM: How did you feel about not getting into drama school? Do you think you missed out?
Mulligan: I applied for three and went to the auditions and it’s still the most terrifying experience of my life. For one of them I had to stand up on stage in front of 10 other people in the same group as me auditioning and do my piece.
I did Shakespeare and I’ve never had any training in Shakespeare, so it was a nightmare. When I didn’t get in I was disappointed, but 3,000 people apply for each of these places every year and it’s hugely competitive. I did some awfully pretentious monologue about suicide and I come from a really happy life, so it wasn’t working for me. [Laughs] So, that it wasn’t a huge surprise really.
But I always wanted to go. I was in New York last week and I went past Juilliard and I sort of pined for it. That was my dream for years to go and train and spend three years acting. Dominic [Cooper] went and he’s doing alright. But some people don’t go and do brilliantly.
There are things I miss from not having trained and I think I’d be more confident on stage had I gone because I think equips you with better vocal training and things like that. But in general it’s worked out very well and I’ve been really lucky. I would love to have gone, and I might still go, but I feel like I’ve missed out on technical things that I haven’t had through just acting.
Carey Mulligan with co-star Peter Sarsgaard
MMM: There’s plenty of awards buzz around your performance in An Education, and you’re playing Michael Douglas‘s daughter in Wall Street 2 as well. How are you coping with the press and being thrust into the limelight?
Mulligan: I wouldn’t have got Wall Street 2 if I hadn’t done An Education. But when you do bigger jobs there’s more attention and when you film in New York you get a tonne of paparazzi every day. It affects your work because you’re trying to think about the person you’re acting with and you’ve got 20 other lenses taking pictures of you at the same time, so it throws you.
I’m not great at having my picture taken and I don’t enjoy that side of it very much, but I’ve got an amazing job and I get to work with brilliant people, and then there’s a 2% down-side of slightly negative stuff on the internet or whatever. But in general, everything’s pretty brilliant, so it’s hard to feel that concerned with it right now.
By film journalist Jan Gilbert
