Carey Hannah Mulligan (born 28 May 1985) is an English film, television and theatre actress. She made her acting debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (2005). Following Pride & Prejudice, she had television roles in the BBC Charles Dickens adaptation Bleak House (2005) and the following year she appeared in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. The following year she began with roles in the one-off television dramas My Boy Jack and Northanger Abbey. The same year, she made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim.
At the age of 24, she gained widespread recognition for playing the role of Jenny in An Education (2009). She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Following her breakthrough role as Jenny, the same year she appeared in a string of dramatic films; Brothers and The Greatest. Mulligan's upcoming films include supporting roles in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to the 1987 film, and Never Let Me Go; both films have 2010 release dates. She is currently slated to appear in five films; all the films are currently in pre-production.
Early life and career beginnings
Mulligan was born in Westminster, London, England. Her father, Stephen, was originally from Liverpool, and her mother, Nano (née Booth), a college lecturer, came from Llandeilo in West Wales. Her great-grandfather immigrated from Ireland. Mulligan has one sibling; an older brother named Owain. At the age of three, Mulligan moved with her family from England to Germany after her father accepted the job of managing the European arm of Intercontinental Hotels." Due to her father's job, her family lived in "expensive hotels" for eight years. During Mulligan's childhood, she and her brother attended the International School of Düsseldorf in Germany. For her high school education, she attended Woldingham School, Surrey. Mulligan stated that during her childhood she was "quite shy" and that up until the age of fifteen she had been a "tomboy". Mulligan also acknowledged that she was "quite laced" during her childhood and that she was very academic until she was fourteen, having then become more interested in acting.
Mulligan stated that after watching her brother perform in a school production of The King and I, it sparked an interest in acting. "[My brother] was on stage and I was watching. And I started crying because I was too young to be in it, and they said, 'OK, fine, you can do it because you're Owen's younger sister.' And they put me in it. And from then on, it's all I've ever wanted to do." Mulligan said of her participation in school plays that:
"
I had wanted to act for a really long time, but other schools I had been to did not have such good drama departments. Everyone was so encouraging. You could do anything you wanted to, although you had to take it seriously. If you missed rehearsals, you were out.
"
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Mulligan acknowledged that since the age of fourteen her mother would take her to Broadway plays in New York, which made her develop an interest in theatre, which led to her accepting a role in the Broadway play The Seagull.
In an interview with The Times she stated that, before she began professionally acting, she had once "secretly" applied to and been rejected by three drama schools on her UCAS. Mulligan stated that after she was rejected and did not make the cut after another audition she began to question pursuing an acting career and went through a "confusing time". Aside from rejection, she'd also questioned an acting career due to her parents disapproval of pursuing a career in entertainment, remarking that her parents were insisting she attend university, preferably the University of Reading in England, believing that Mulligan's "desire would wear off". Around this time she had a brief time as a barmaid at a local pub. In 2009, Mulligan stated that those negative experiences had a positive effect on her because it made her "realize just how much" she wanted to act.
In 2009, she stated that when she was filming Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps in New York she began considering going to acting school, preferably Juilliard in New York, but stated that her decision is still pending. In November of the same year, Mulligan stated that her grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, had 'stamped her so much', that if she ever does go to university, she would choose to study psychology to have a greater understanding of the disease.
Career
Early work
"I have no desire to make a big studio picture that says nothing. For me, it's all about script. I just don't see any point in doing things that don't interest me. And my agents have been really good in steering me away from the parts that are entirely generic [...] I love acting because it's challenging and it engages me at every level, so I'm not going to compromise those feelings to pay my tax bill - although I have in the past. For me, it may sound cliche, but it really is a passion so I will go after the roles I feel are worthwhile, and try to ignore the rest."
—Mulligan on her choice of appearing in films
In 2004, when Mulligan was eighteen, she began her acting career after she won the role of Kitty Bennett in Pride & Prejudice, the 2005 film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. Mulligan received the role with help from her school's headmistress stating, "I wrote to [her] explaining that I didn't want to go to university and wanted to get in touch with [Julian Fellowes.]" After meeting Fellowes, he introduced her to a casting agent who was looking to cast an unknown in the film. That same year she appeared, as a recurring role, in the BAFTA award-winning BBC adaption of Charles Dickens Bleak House as one of the orphans, Ada Clare. Throughout 2006 she found work by appearing in the TV series The Amazing Mrs Pritchard opposite Jane Horrocks, as well as guest-starring in "The Sittaford Mystery", an episode of ITV's Marple, and playing Emily Harrogate in the Trial & Retribution serial Sins of the Father.
In 2007 Mulligan appeared in the film adaptation of Blake Morrison's memoirs of the same name, entitled And When Did You Last See Your Father?. Also in 2007, Mulligan appearing in one-off television dramas; she appeared with Daniel Radcliffe and Kim Catrall in My Boy Jack and she appeared in the adaptation of the book of the same name, Northanger Abbey; both dramas were originally broadcast on the ITV network. Derek Elley, of Variety, described Mulligan's performance in And When Did You Last See Your Father? as being "strong" and praised her for being "elusive". As well as appearing in the dramas, she also made a guest appearance in a two-part Waking the Dead episode, and played the main character, Sally Sparrow, in an episode of Doctor Who, entitled "Blink". Mulligan's guest appearance on Doctor Who earned her a Constellation Awards for Best Female Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode".
Mulligan rounded out 2007 by appearing in the acclaimed 2007 revival of The Seagull. Mulligan's performance, in which she played Nina to Kristin Scott Thomas's Arkadina and Chiwetel Ejiofor's Trigorin was praised by critics. The Daily Telegraph described her performance as being "quite extraordinarily radiating'" and the Observer described her as being "almost unbearably affecting". The Independent viewed Mulligan and her performance as having been "exquisite". For her debut Broadway performance—in the 2008 United States transfer of The Seagull—she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, in the category of "Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play"; but lost the award to Angela Lansbury.
Critical success
In 2009, she appeared in the film adaptation of Bryan Burrough's non-fiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34, Public Enemies (which along with An Education premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival) co-starring alongside Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, playing one of Dillinger's regular prostitutes. Despite Public Enemies reaching blockbuster status with the worldwide revenue of over 200 million, the film received fairly positive critic reviews. The same year, Mulligan appeared in The Greatest starring alongside Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon, playing the pregnant girlfriend of a boy who dies. After being screened at multiple film festivals, the film was without a distributor for a long period of time, until receiving a distributor in late 2009 which gave the film a release date in November 2009 internationally and a limited release in North America in March 2010. S.T. Vanairsdale of Moveline.com described Mulligan as having delivered a "great American accent" in the film.
Mulligan also appeared in Brothers, the American remake of the Danish film of the same name, co-starring Natalie Portman. Mulligan describing her role as a "small part", plays the wife of a soldier accidentally killed by one of the three lead characters in the film. Mulligan stated in an interview at the Sundance Festival that she received her role as Cassie in Brothers after sending an audition tape to the United States and while filming her scenes her dialogue was mainly improvised, referring to it as a "trial by fire". The film, which was only released in North America, received mixed reviews and despite having a fair amount of revenue, the film was unable to recoup its $26 million budget.
In 2009, her most notable role of both the year and her career was, An Education in which she played the lead role of Jenny. Mulligan was twenty-two when she was cast as Jenny, who is sixteen in the film; the film's creative team were initially concerned over the age difference but after seeing her screen test, felt confident about her casting. An Education was released worldwide in October 2009, and at the film was given a limited release in North America and Canada; during the films limited release in North America, in its second week it received a wider release, playing on 317 theaters at the most. Despite the film receiving positive reviews (Mulligan included) the film had a poor box office revenue, making only $8.2 million. The film was more successfully domestically; having made 7.9 million in North America compared to the international revenue of over $280,000.
Various critics praised Mulligan's performance in An Education. Lisa Schwarzbaum, of Entertainment Weekly and Todd McCarthy, of Variety both compared her performance to that of Audrey Hepburn and Peter Travers, of Rolling Stone described her as having a "sensational, starmaking performance", while Claudia Puig, of USA Today felt that Mulligan had one of "the year's best" performances. Her performance also garnered her Golden Globe, Screen Actor Guide Award and Critics Choice Awards nominations. Phillip French of Guardian.co.uk described Mulligan's performance as having been "wonderful" and that she "exudes vitality." Peter Bradshaw, also of Guardian.co.uk, felt that Mulligan had given a "wonderful performance". Toby Young, of The Times UK felt that "An Education is anchored by a very strong performance from Mulligan" and "her self-assurance is so pronounced that it seems to permeate the whole film, infusing it with authority." Young also stated that as you see her "skipping from scene to scene" that he felt that there is "no doubt that a star being born" commenting, "If she isn't nominated for an Oscar I'll eat my hat." Robert Hanks, of Independent.co.uk praised Mulligan for 'managing' to "seem both childlike and middle-aged" and for "always" being "appealingly curious."
In September 2009, Mulligan began filming scenes for her role in the Oliver Stone directed film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the film that co-stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin and Michael Douglas is a sequel to the 1987 film Wall Street. Mulligan stated that Stone had cast her in the film after seeing her performance in An Education. In the film, which has a mainly male cast, Mulligan has a supporting role as Winnie Gekko, the daughter of the protagonist Gordon and the love interest of Jacob; Mulligan, who has an English accent, had to speak with an American accent for her role. The film is set to be released theatrically on April 22, 2010 internationally and the following day the film will be released to North America. Mulligan reunited with her Pride and Prejudice co-star Keira Knightley and her An Education co-star Sally Hawkins in the forthcoming 2010 film Never Let Me Go. The film centres on an alternate history story of a woman who reflects on her school life on the English countryside and reunites with two of her friends as she faces "dark secrets tied to their communal past".
In January 2009, she contracted to star in a 2010 West End revival of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and is also contracted to star in a film version of the Royal Court's Seagull and Warren Beatty's next feature film. In October 2009, Mulligan signed on to star in the upcoming film entitled The Beautiful Fantastic, the film is set to begin principal photography in May 2010. Mulligan is also set to star in the 2011 film entitled The Electric Slide; the film is currently in pre-production.
In February 2010 Mulligan was nominated for the Best Actress award in the 82nd Academy Awards for her performance in An Education.
Personal life
Mulligan has been dating actor and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps co-star Shia LaBeouf since August 2009. Mulligan and LaBeouf began dating after being introduced prior to filming by Oliver Stone, the director of the film they were working on.
Mulligan acknowledged that she enjoyed her role as Elsie in My Boy Jack because she "could relate to her in every way", because in the film Elsie is vociferously opposed to her brother going to war, which is a similar feeling Mulligan had to her brother, who after graduating from Oxford University volunteered to serve with the Territorial Army in Iraq; he has since returned home.
Mulligan stated that skiing is her favorite pastime, but she chose to practice the sport less in fear of losing an acting job because of an injury, commenting: "I get more nervous of going skiing now...I don't want to go and break a leg and lose a job. So more walking now." In 2007, while in the middle of the run of the Broadway play The Seagull, Mulligan had to have an appendectomy; preventing her from being able to perform. Her anticipated recovery period was three to six weeks, but she was back on stage performing after only one week, although she couldn't wear a corset while in character because of her stitches from the surgery.
Filmography
Film
Year
Title
Role
Other notes
2005
Pride & Prejudice
Kitty Bennet
Film debut
2007
And When Did You Last See Your Father?
Rachel
Minor role
2009
The Greatest
Rose
Supporting role
Public Enemies
Carole
Minor role
An Education
Jenny
Lead role
Brothers
Cassie Willis
Minor role
2010
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Winnie Gekko
Supporting role (awaiting release)
Never Let Me Go
Kathy
Supporting role (post-production)
Television
Year
Title
Role
Other notes
2005
Bleak House
Ada Clare
Recurring role (15 episodes)
2006
The Amazing Mrs Pritchard
Emily Pritchard
Recurring role (6 episodes)
Trial & Retribution X: Sins of the Father
Emily Harrogate
Episode: "Sins of the Father: Part 1" (Series 10, Episode 1)
Agatha Christie Marple: The Sittaford Mystery
Violet Willett
Made-for-television movie
2007
Waking The Dead
Sister Bridgid
Episode: "Wren Boys" (Series 6, Episode 1)
Doctor Who
Sally Sparrow
Episode: "Blink" (Series 3, Episode 10)
My Boy Jack
Elsie Kipling
Made-for-television movie
Northanger Abbey
Isabella Thorpe
Awards
Year
Award
Category
Nominated work
Result
2008
The Constellation Awards
Best Female Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode
Doctor Who - Blink
Won
2009
Berlin International Film Festival
Shooting Stars Award
None
Digital Spy Movie Awards
Star of the Future
Drama Desk Award
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
The Seagull
Nominated
Alliance of Film Journalists
Best Actress
An Education
Won
British Independent Film Awards
British Independent Film Awards for Best Actress
Hollywood Film Festival
Breakthrough Performance
National Board of Review
Best Actress
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award
Toronto Film Critics Association Award
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association
Chicago Film Critics Association Award
Utah Film Critics Association
Houston Film Critics Society
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards 2009
London Film Critics' Circle
Best Actress
Nominated
Best British Actress
San Diego Film Critics Society Award
Best Actress
Detroit Film Critics Society Awards 2009
Best Actress
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Satellite Award
Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2010
Academy Awards
Best Actress
Critics Choice Award
Best Actress
British Academy Film Award
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated
The Orange Rising Star Award
None
Screen Actors Guild Award
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
An Education
Nominated
Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
|
References
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^ . BFCA.org. 2009. . Retrieved 2009-12-16.
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External links
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- at the Internet Movie Database
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