Ep 170. Carey Mulligan
When Carey Mulligan first stepped foot on set of 2005\u2019s Pride & Prejudice, she was convinced she won the lottery. It was her first professional job and her first time acting in front of a camera, but there she was, acting alongside Judi Dench, Keira Knightly, and Jena Malone. \u201cThe entire experience was like summer camp; it didn\u2019t feel like work at all.\u201d Carey was living her dream, but she was still convinced it was all a fluke. \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018After this, I\u2019ll reapply to drama school.\u2019\u201d In reality, her acting career had just begun\u2014with the best yet to come.\n\nHer first lead role came in 2009 with the coming-of-age film An Education. Her compelling performance led to an Oscar \u201cBest Actress\u201d nomination and widespread critical acclaim, even though Carey was originally devastated when she first watched her performance: \u201cIt was like listening to your voice on the answering machine and wincing because of how awful you sound\u2014but multiply that by 500.\u201d She had gotten so used to flying under the radar in supporting roles that she was unaccustomed to the pressure and spotlight of the lead. Carey was convinced her first shot would be her last\u2014\u201cSundance is going to be a disaster. They\u2019re going to send me home.\u201d Of course, the opposite happened.\n\nSince then, she\u2019s amassed a stunning body of work onscreen and onstage (Shame, Far From the Madding Crowd, Mudbound, Girls & Boys, and many more), and her incredible performance in Wildlife, Paul Dano\u2019s directorial debut, is the newest addition. She plays a unique female character, struggling to find her identity underneath the crippling expectations that come with her role as a wife and mother in the 1960s. As a complicated and volatile woman, her character is not without controversy for those used to more idealistic portrayals of women\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s amazing that we still live in a world where a real, complex woman, expressing herself in a multitude of ways, is dismissed as unrealistic because she\u2019s not what we want to see.\u201d But she cherishes the opportunity to change hearts and minds through her work.\n\nCarey joins\xa0Off Camera to talk about battling stage fright, learning how to put her insecurities in perspective, and why sometimes the key to unlocking a character is to\u2026take off your shoes.