To celebrate this year’s Oscar nominations which were announced this week we have a special episode about one of the nominees for best actress; Carey Mulligan. We discuss her filmography, her screen persona and dig deeper into three films; Shame (2011), Wildlife (2018) and her latest Promising Young Woman for which she recieved her second Oscar nomination. For this conversation podcast host Murtada Elfadl welcomes producer and writer, Jordan Crucchiola host of Disaster Girls and Aughtsterion podcasts.
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Topics Discussed:
- The first time we saw Mulligan on screen and why we love watching her.
- Broke out with An Education (2010) with comparisons to Audrey Hepburn, though that misses the thorniness of the character and the performance.
- Often associated with British period films from her first role in Pride and Prejudice (2205) to Far From the Madding Crowd (2013) to Suffragette (2015) to The Dig (2021).
- Promisng Young Woman and why this film and performance are taking Mulligan to the next level with the industry and audiences.
- We go into detail about two of her performances; Sissy in Shame (2011) and Jeanette in Wildlife (2018).
Shame (2011):
- At the time this was seen as a new direction for Mulligan to break from prim and proper British period pieces with a modern provocative character.
- Her rendition of “New York, New York”… melancholy, defeated with piercing hurt.
- Builds a complex prickly sibling relationship that’s rooted in physicality with Michael Fassbender.
- The way she modulates her voice, sounds different as Sissy than her other characters.
- “We are not bad people, we just come from a bad place.” – a line delivery that unlocks the character and movie.
Wildlife (2018):
- Carey’s performance. Exacting, mercurial… the character is messy but the actor is in control.
- Follows a long tradition of ‘women unraveling” on screen that beget fantastic performances. Gena Rowlands (A Woman Under the Influence), Vivien Leigh (A Streetcar Named Desire), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine). This is my fave genre of films. On screen when women unravel they show their vulnerabilities, while men just become violent.
- Why didn’t this film – impeccably made – find a bigger audience? Mulligan has talked about the negative reaction audiences had for her character.
- A key line that unlocked the film for me “if you got a better plan for me, tell me I’ll try it.”
- This is a performance whose brilliance lies in tiny moments despite a few loud notes.
- The centerpiece scene; Jeanette’s clumsy seduction of Mr. Miller (Bill Camp) in the presence of her 14- year old son (Ed Oxenbould).
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