Conversations with Carey Mulligan

hey good afternoon or I guess it's still morning my name is Janel Riley I'm an editor of variety I'm so thrilled to welcome you to the SAG Foundation conversation with Carey Mulligan this is an actress who really just in the last few years has emerged as one of our most interesting and reliable presences on screen she is of course an Oscar nominee for her work in an education and just this year received a Tony nomination for her work in the Broadway play skylight right now of course she is currently appearing on screens in suffragette which you should all go to on Sunday um please join me in welcoming Carey Mulligan also on a superficial note can you see those shoes those are the great issues everyone stand up sorry thank you we're here to talk about like you're serious amazing acting and I just had my mouse and the shoes now that that's out of the way thank you so much for being here Thank You favi yeah congratulations on not just you know a great movie but a really great year you've had two fantastic movies up this year far from the maddening crowd um yeah and obviously the run on Broadway I mean everything at once how's it feel yeah it's good amazing it's been sort of how it works or has worked with me that I take you know before I did madding crowd I took a year and a half off because the right thing didn't come along and then these things all came in quick succession so so it was sort of yeah madding crowd suffragette and skylight in London and New York will happen very quickly so it's nice now to be on holiday sort of its kind of unheard of - your actors talk about time off I mean was it an issue of you're waiting for the right project or yeah I mean I'm before that I've done a kind of run of work shame and Gatsby in a play in New York and so you know it been quite intense and then I stopped and and it just wasn't there wasn't the right thing kind of coming up so I was just waiting for kind of a good and then all these great things came in all very quickly in a row SS so this is a sag audience of other fellow actors so I was like to start by asking how did you get your sag card because obviously you're working in England yeah we're making my PS job was I was I had a really really small part in brothers the Jim Sheridan's film I had a scene with Natalie Portman and so that was the first time and I and and I was in a bit more of it and I could cut out of a bit of it and but I was there for months i Jim Sheridan just kept me in New Mexico for months and I was living in this um I was living in a Holiday Inn on the freeway and taking the bus down to Santa say I'm back and like just trying to fill my time I had nothing to do and but that was how I got my god that's the glorious Hollywood Life yeah here ya sit in New Mexico yeah well that was before in education yeah oh yeah it was yeah yeah um because you had actually done quite a bit of work yeah I've done I mean lots of television in England and theater and but an education was the first lead role I had in a film yeah so I do want to go back to the beginning I know you were born and raised in London and I think you were active in school plays yeah I did all that stuff it's when did you know this was something you want to do for a career um I think when I knew that it was a career you know you don't really think of it as being a career when you're little um and then when I went to I went to New York when I was 14 with my mum to go and see some plays and I saw a Molly Ringwald and Alan and in studio 54 in cabaret I saw that show yeah did you yeah and and I and I had a cosmopolitan at 14 my Ming glish and we don't take it that seriously and I watched it yeah with my mum and and that was kind of the first time I thought I want to do this properly for a living and I also saw Kevin Bacon and a play at the Walter Kerr theater I can't remember the name of the play but it was a one-man show and then when I went back years later to the seagull it was in the Walter Kerr so it was very kind of lyrical crazy and then I've heard this story and I just have to you know clarify if is true because it's either the greatest urban legend ever or or it's true that you wrote a letter to Kenneth Branagh I did yeah after seeing him in a show yeah I saw him in Henry in Stratford and yeah and you know he's always been I mean he's the best actor on the planet and when it comes to Shakespeare he's you know no one else can kind of do it like him but probably more islands and so I just was in love with him he was probably my childhood crush had any he's my adult crash yeah and and so yeah I wrote to him and said like oh I really want to be an actor and and I didn't know my parents aren't like crazy about the idea and I don't really know how to get into it and and should I be an actor and he wrote back well he didn't write back this is where this story's gotten slightly confused his assistant wrote back which then translated to the presses his sister and I don't even know the answer sister but poor poor Kenneth um but um yeah said you know it kind of feels that if there's nothing else that you can do if there's anything else that you can do you should do that you know it's you if you feel it's the only thing you can do to do it but the letter that really sort of you know the kind of extraordinary luck that I had was writing to Julian Fellowes who I'd met briefly at my school and who introduced me to a number of people and also introduced me to the casting directors assistant who is meeting lots and lots of young girls to play the sisters in Pride and Prejudice oh my gosh yeah so um this is foreign to us in today's day and age this is an actual letter like we're know and actually yeah yeah yeah yeah and how did you know we're a senator I got his address of my headmistress knew him from my school um yeah so I got his address off her and write to him the Julian Fellowes actually discourage you a little bit he did he told me if I wanted to be an actress I should marry a banker um at first yeah and then after that he was very encouraging and uh but that was his initial piece of advice which is pretty solid but but yeah and then later um I went and and then when I wrote him really and honest about it then he took it very seriously and was it I heard him or his wife invited you to a dinner party it was both of them yeah and I think they've got lots of letters from you know kind of desperate people like me and they were all there you know so they were like ten of us and I made just thought like let's get this done in one go and there will you know they kind of doled out advice to each person and and it was great they you know I went to they introduced me to this you know Theatre Workshop in London at the Riverside Studios and you know I'd never acted with anyone who wasn't you know pretty much a girl and never acted with men I'd never acted with anyone who wasn't from you know my life and so I got to act with all sorts of different people in different ages and boys and girls and and that was really helpful and then later I did this audition for Pride and Prejudice so that was your first time in front of a camera frankly yes yeah wow that's quite a debut yeah yeah what do you remember about that process oh I am so much I mean it was amazing it was like you know such a dream experience it was 11 weeks and you know we were all staying in lovely country estates and we were all kind of between the age of 18 and 25 and having so much fun and having parties and jumping in lakes and you know all this kind of fun stuff it was great I had no idea what I was doing but I loved it all of it it was amazing um how did you get the part of me was her an audition process yeah so I went and met Gina Jay was casting it and but she was over in LA meeting you know sort of and and so her assistant was putting lots and lots of girls on tape and I think Joe had asked him see you know act girls who hadn't been in professional productions before so they didn't feel that he wanted people who hadn't really acted very much and so I did an audition for Robin he was the assistant and and he really helped me because I was obviously used to doing quite theatrical things and he kept on sort of cutting and telling me to make it smaller and smaller and smaller which is very good advice and you were I think around 19 at the side I was 18 yeah oh wow um I mean handling rejection at any age is tough so I don't know is this your first audition yeah okay you booked it yeah okay so problem yeah but there have been many many many rejections to follow but yeah I was lucky on that one I mean it is it is tough like I said at any age I mean at such a young age how did you deal with it I mean I just sort of kind of couldn't believe my luck so I was quite happy and I didn't expect much to come of it I thought you know I'll be in this film and that'll be you know it'll be nice but I didn't imagine it would kind of lead to a career so I was trying to enjoy it for what it was as opposed to getting too attached to the idea of being you know in business and you mentioned that your parents were not thrilled when you becoming an actor or yeah probably concerned yeah yeah exactly um how do they feel about it now yeah then they they like they're very supportive yeah I mean you know it's all the reasons that you would be nervous of your you know son or daughter becoming an actor and which are very understandable but at the time I just thought they were horrible people and they didn't understand my passion and you know all of that kind of stuff but obviously in retrospect you think yeah of course and know if they get to meet Meryl Streep they're like oh now that were lying about it yeah yeah so after Pride and Prejudice I know you did some tea you did the very acclaimed miniseries Bleak House yeah you did Doctor Who it is pretty much the coolest thing ever oh you started doing a lot of theaters yeah yeah I mean did you imagine your career as a theater actress did you always want to do everything no I imagined when I was growing up doing theater I didn't really grow up very much the film not really in the house or anything like that so theater was a musical theater was where I wanted to be but I realized quite quickly that you had to be pretty good to be so I kind of got more interested in normal straight theater and yeah so that's kind of what I always pictured I would end up doing or hope that I would end up doing if I got into it and obviously you've got to get back on stage just this year yeah um what is it about the live theater experience that I don't know if it's your favorite medium or it's funny it's sort of a it's such an embarrassment of riches really because when you're doing you know when you're filming you go oh wait to do a play you know and then it's vice versa you know it's the same kind of you I love I think what I really like about theater is going out and being completely blinded by lights and no one can tell me to stop and I kind of you know that feeling of not being I get you know I can get a bit kind of nervous about crew and not crew but you know I get kind of well there's too many people around I find it quite hard to concentrate so I try and you know sort of um just focus and be a professional but but on stage it's so much easier in a way I kind of find it much easier just to block everything out and you you run and go and I like that you know you kind of have to just constantly fix things and you know if it's not going well you have to try and get it back onto the right course and there's no cutting and there's no I that's sort of exciting um I know you mentioned that you I don't know if you want say took classes but you were studying with some people but by a very young age you were doing some really intense roles I mean you were doing The Seagull yeah you were doing Dickens and Jane Austen do you continue to study with someone do you ever have to you know turn to a coach to help you with certain wrong no I never I never took any I really wanted to go to drama school I didn't get in but I was rich but it was totally understandable because I was so ridiculously out of my depth and I and I you know I was 17 years old and I was trying to do these very serious Sarah Kane monologues about suicide and you know and I come from this like incredibly well-adjusted lovely house and you know they could see straight through me like go away and like live a little bit and so it was fair enough but no I never took any classes but I did work for a I did have amazing people to work with one you know the directors that I worked with you know knew that I had no idea what I was doing and were very generous at their time and particularly Ian Rick's and who I did the seagull with in London and New York was you know he was kind of probably the most kind of influential in terms of how I work and and how he helped me kind of come up with a way of working which the safari I didn't have I just sort of made it up as I went along another original production of the seagull co-starred Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristin Scott Thomas yeah I mean I have to imagine you learned a lot just from working with heavyweights like that yeah I mean that was amazing and then such intense scenes especially with Joelle so and Kristin but and Mackenzie Crook as well he was really extraordinary in that plane and we also did in New York together and then Peter Sarsgaard yes came and and took to it and kind of took on the role at Cheers I would say in London so that was really cool and when you move to New York I know that you received a Drama Desk Award nomination but you lost to this up-and-comer Angela Lansbury I know do you remember that experience I mean I'm thinking who the hell is Angela right yeah no not really not kind of I think that'll happen once we left the production I you know is still probably you know one of my top two experiences ever I loved it so much and and I you know as a 16 week run and I genuinely wanted to carry on and I think you know that's sort of says so much about the script and the people and you know I loved it every second of it people always ask this and and and I understand why it's confusing but how do you keep a performance like that fresh every night um sometimes it's not I think I mean that was that was so special because I just loved that character and that relationship and a lot of it was to do with Mackenzie and that he was so as costia he was just so real and fragile and emotionally kind of available and so so kind of working with him we were so in love with that story and you know and the sort of tragedy of it and so I think yeah and and and sort of I have this sort of book that I make for most of the jobs that I do and I'm I try and read something new every day like read a read or listen to new music or listen to something that and then try and find something from that song or that poem or that book that can feed into that evening oh wow what did you listen to you a lot through the seagull oh gosh I listen to a lot of an Irish folk artist called Kate Rose B who does lots of folk songs they're all kind of very lots of songs about there's one called young James which is about a someone that you know she's in love with that will sort of been kind of left her and I mean there's a lots lots of things I used to run around backstage before I did the Seeger listening to a song and pretending to be on a horse look like I had to come onto the stage having sort of raced from my father's house on a horse to get there and being very breathless and I come on and I go I'm not late am I on I know I'm not late and all of this sort of stuff and so I used to run up and down I mean I wasn't like doing this but I question I was racing you know I was kind of running and there was all these stairs backstage so I'd run from my dressing on the top floor all the way down to the basement where the costumes were and then all the way back up again bullwhip and then outside and then I had to go out into the fire escape climb up to the fire escape say hello to my grandfather and then run back down and run back on stage and that was my thing and if I didn't do it I mean I don't think I ever didn't do it I mean was it you know to be breathless or was it also sort of superstition it was kinda turned into a bit of a ritual but it was to be breathless initially and then it turned into like it had to be part of show yeah your co-stars just knew like stay clear stay the hell away yeah yeah I I did some spectacular falls onto stage sometime like a couple of nights well that was I was actually gonna ask because I got away like a full length dress and a corset and high heels you are not high heels but you know like you know the kind of shoes that this was over I fell over a lot but I'll just fall over a lot so I think you came to a lot of our attention here in the states with 2009 at education such a beautiful film you mentioned it was your first lead role I don't even know how old you were at the time I knew it was very young I was 22 or 23 I can't remember when I filmed it and then when I came out 24 I mean were you familiar with the book it was based on is it something well it was it was based on a memoir so it was sort of a six-page article in a magazine in a literary magazine Granta and so I just read that and and then read the script and actually didn't really have anything to do with Lynn Barbour who it was based on throughout the whole process she came to the set one day but you know she kind of stayed away from Marvin really yeah how did you go about winning the role well it was a sort of it went oh it was sort of one of those films that you think is never going to get made so it kind of happened over about two years and it had a different director initially and then and then it was called it was called the time of her life bad title and and then finally it came back round and they wanted me to audition for Helen which was Rosamund Pike's role eventually and I don't think I did but you know it's kind of one of those things that just went on and on and then finally lone sherek came on the project and then it will go fast I mean wasn't our audition or déjenos oh yeah no no it was it was it was probably four or five I think I was gonna say I have to imagine every young actress you know British and American yeah was going after this part yeah I don't know I mean it was just such a long protracted process so I think they just saw tons of people and you know and then some people probably were doing other thing you know it's one of those really long things so and then it all came together I think they suddenly got the financing and it was like go and was it nerve-racking like waiting to hear or you said that like you kind of never thought it would really happen so maybe you just weren't thinking about it yeah it wasn't you know wasn't one of those things that you're waiting for your agents cool because we would talk about it every couple of months you know it was one of those kind of jobs so it wasn't that kind of process and then to get to work with Peter Sarsgaard who I imagine you already have you know this amazing chemistry and history with yeah that must have helped immensely yeah well we did we actually we were doing an education when they offered him the Segal so we did it that way around and yeah I mean he's just the best and the coolest guy ever and so much fun and you know and that role was so hard I think it was just such a difficult he walked such a fine line with that character because you know it was just some of the stuff that happens the film is properly dodgy and you know and you don't kind of hate him you kind of love him so you feel for him and and I think that's so difficult where did that film premiere when did you first see it I found out yeah yeah okay cuz I remember reading about you know the premier and the rapturous response that started receiving it festivals so the first time seeing with an audience were you prepared for that um I don't actually remember it being like a big deal in the room you know I remember the week in Sundance and suddenly you know that someone was gonna buy it we were like what you know it was a that was all of that was excited but I don't remember the room being a particularly you but I remember reviews coming in and everyone around us being very excited by that see I heard about these amazing standing ovations and I don't remember that I mean I think that you know I was terrified yeah the whole time so I think I was probably just thinking into my seat I mean was it difficult this is your first lead role you're in every scene of the Ruby oh it's such a hard watch you know I remember actually calling my mum the first time I saw it I saw it on my own and screening room was here in LA and it was a week before Sundance and I saw it and I came out and I just sobbed and I called her and I was like mom it's so boring and like like nothing happens and my face doesn't move and I don't do anything and I like you know I was completely devastated and I was like they're going to hate it and I want to come home and you know so just but that's you know I think that's just a lot of watching yourself and I'd only ever been could of in and out and I'd never been like much in things you know and your mother who really didn't want you to become an actress how did she respond to that she was like well you've got to go now I gotta show it regardless um that movie really did I mean change your career in so many ways with the Oscar nomination and I think that we've talked before about how you weren't completely comfortable with that attention yeah I mean I was you know I wasn't expecting anyone to really see it and and you know and and none of the stuff that followed um and I think I just felt sort of like yeah I was just freaked out by I'm not good you know I I'm fine now but I was terrible having my photo taken and you know I felt kind of like someone had sort of accidentally invited me to a party but I you know they were like what are you doing here but and so I kind of walked into every room and I know Colin Firth was doing it all for a single man and I knew him I'd met him years ago I've had a tiny role in film called when did you last see your father there he was in and so I met him and so I kind of latched on to him and his wife everywhere and I'd kind of like grip onto his arm as we walked into rooms and me like don't introduce me to anyone I don't want to meet anyone I just want to sit in the corner um and yeah it was just it was a funny thing and I wish I'd enjoyed it because it's such an amazing experience but if you can get into it and have fun and just see it for what it is and not take it too seriously do you enjoy it more now um yeah I mean I have not done that whole process since but I do really I mean this has been so nice talking about suffragettes because like it I love the people that I've made it with and you know that's really fun to get to do QAS with them and you know and and that sort of stuff is nice and in addition to changing your life I know it also changed your career I mean do you remember like the the difference we did roles start coming your way yeah I mean it was it was literally kind of from week to week that I remember the week before knowing that they were making a film about they were making never let me go and I'm thinking oh I'd love to be in that but you know there's no and then straight after Sundance I met remarque romantic and it was lit you know it's that kind of thing he just it's so funny how it happens like that and so that was amazing because I really had read that book almost the day it came out years before and really just dreamt about playing that role so it was that was kind of amazing was that the first thing you signed on to do after yeah yeah yeah that is a very very haunting movie yes at the same time I mean did you have an American agent at the time I had yes I did yeah I had an American agent from when I did Seagal in London um I had to imagine some like big blockbuster movie roles were coming your way you did do the Great Gatsby but yeah to choose never let me go is like actually a very bold choice where your agents ever encouraging you to you know look at these blockbusters no no really I mean I've had the same agent in London since I was 18 who you know saw my audition tape for Pride and Prejudice that we've been together ever since and we've got very similar sensibilities and so she's always sort of pushing not pushing but she's much far more interested in plays and good feel and she's not really interested in kind of the stuff that I probably wouldn't be interested in doing but I did mention you did do the Great Gatsby you did you did a wide variety of roles you did Drive you did shame obviously inside Llewyn Davis how are you sort of choosing your roles at this time well my agent gave me a really good bit of advice when I was doing never let me go because you know that they were kind of it was sort of an exciting time and she said you know you're in this extraordinary period now and it may be very brief but whilst you're in it you shouldn't take a role unless you can't bear the idea of anybody else doing it and so that sort of been my way of working ever since that you know if I read something and I think oh it's so great and I could prompt but like I I wouldn't you know if I'm not thinking about it the day after the week after the month after then I sort of tend to to not do it so it's been stuff that I thought like oh it would kill me to see any other actress play this role because I just want to do it so badly then I I tend to do those movies I just mentioned also have really strong art or director yeah I just have to ask what's it like to work with the Coen brothers there's so many stories yeah it's amazing it's them it was so funny because I went straight from Gatsby literally from Sydney to New York and then and started the next day on on the Coen Brothers film so it was a complete you know just a different world from from Gatsby which is huge production of six months of filming and you know three hours and her makeup to to that film but yeah they're the best you know and and so much fun to work with and so easy finished work by 4:00 in the afternoon most days really yeah it was great see my feet I've heard all these various stories about them that kind of contradict each other like some people know something some people have said that like they give no feedback they give well they what they do is they sort of um they'll give you one brilliant thing you know per scene pretty much and it's it's some yeah they kind of take turns and things you can't vote but they're very they're very relaxed and everything's planned out they know exactly what they've shot the film they've cut the film before they you know that so you get a beginning of a day you see the shot list and you see but exactly the coverage they're going to shoot of you so they if they only need a mid shot they'll only shoot that they don't shoot and wides for the sake of it so I think that's why it goes so quickly but they're just so intelligent and then they'll just come and give you some like amazing thing to or some point to focus or you know brilliant but most of the time you're only kind of encouragement is hearing them laugh from behind the monitor and everything else is just you know then you just move on I have to mention the greatest sound in the world do you oh my god yeah and I had them do it low for Oscar I was like oh come on but no they were they were so lovely to me and they gave me such a kind of amazing opportunity to get to play that role and and yeah I loved it and you got to sing I did say yes yeah yeah you know maybe a musical is in the future no I think I'd have to do an awful lot of training right yes good enough to do musical had you met Oscar before that movie yeah Oscar and plays my husband and drive right but so you shut drag we talked drive first yeah okay yeah cuz I sort of like to believe that drive is like a weird sequel yeah it is where the relationship really doesn't work at yeah oh my god and what is it I mean having worked with so many legendary directors what is it you hope for from a director oh they're also I mean they've all been so different but generally somebody that I trust implicitly and that kind of holds everything with a firm hand and someone that you can collaborate with quite intimately on the whole but not necessarily it's just someone that you can look at the end of the day and if they nod at you then you know you're done you know I don't need like a massive pat on the back or a kind of cuddle every day but I mean which is also sometimes nice but I do I like kind of just someone who makes Hughes I know is kind of pushing me as much as I can be pushed and and then knows what they want and and and it doesn't let me kind of underperform and I mean Steve McQueen was definitely a huge you know an unbelievable example of that he's just such a he just drives you so much and pushes you so far in the most wonderful and encouraging and loving way but he just pushes you to till your breaking point and then and then he and then it's yeah he's just incredible I may talk to so many directors about you know building this ensemble of actors with so many different styles but I think it has to be kind of weird for an actor I mean I have to imagine like Baz Luhrmann and Steve McQueen are wildly different directors or maybe they're not maybe they're actually very silly they kind of I mean there's a there's a sort of real energy that they both have the kind of like you know I don't know where they get their reserves of energy from so now they're pretty similar but I think if that's the style of the film more than the style of the director that you know Gatsby was a very you know was stylized and and Shane was very kind of realistic that brings us to this year which I mentioned you already appeared in far from the madding crowd and of course skylight is there a difference I know you did skylight and also The Seagull first in England before bringing them here is there a difference that you can perceive and like European audiences American audiences I think American audiences tend to there's sort of a feeling when you go into British theater or when you're on stage that the audience is sort of sitting back you know like alright what have you got you know quite kind of and British people are quite reserved in general so they're not the first to sort of you know get excited about things but the American audience in sort of sit forward and you notice the difference but that also means that they're much more vocal which sometimes is great and sometimes less great I remember when we did the seagull McKenzie would walk on once he shot the seagull and he walks on very slowly and you know this seagull sort of dripping with blood and he presents it to Nina it's this really awful moment in the play and this like old biddy in the second row went oh my god it's a seagull and it just it just held diamonds and you know it's that sort of thing real over but then it's also kind of brilliant you know I don't have to love them for it I would actually plant her there every night so people know why it's called the seagull seagull yeah didn't get it until then I it's killing me that I didn't get to see Mackenzie Crook in this because you know we know him from the office yeah it's such an extraordinary actor but what he does in the office is so hard you know is it's really mean he doesn't feel like an actor in that he just feels I mean they're all incredible in that but he's just feels like he's that and he's just could not be further from that character that sort of so exciting guy he's the CEO yes incredibly you know kind of quite shy sweet funny you know very humble and but to play that role and you know but he was he was extraordinary go so suffragettes this is a remarkable story about the British suffragette movement that I I guess I'm a little embarrassed to say was not that familiar with I mean is this something that is taught in schools oh no yeah I had the same experience I remember in school in my history book there was a paragraph about this big and I said the women's movement and it just said you know it was led by Emmeline Pankhurst who's played by Meryl Streep and you know it talks about Emily Wilding Davison a mess that was it that's okay so now I don't feel it's bad yeah so when you first I was at the script that first came to you or I mean were you surprised about this yeah massively I mean I couldn't believe I didn't know more about it I think I knew that suffragettes had been put in prison for protesting but I didn't know you know the way that they were treated the police brutality the abuse the interrogation you know the fact that they were force-fed you know that was sort of where force-feeding started and then it went was then later used for the IRA in Ireland but you know these women were the first first prisoners to undergo force-feeding in our country and I know the script was written by Abby Morgan who also wrote Shane yeah so I don't know if that's how it came to you it was just usual channels I was know it came through usual channels but I think you know they they Abby mentioned that they've sort of thought about me sand for a while which is very lovely but yeah it came through my agents and then I met Sarah pretty quickly after I read her and what was it that drew you to the role of Maude I know she's kind of a composite character of a few real women yeah and she's working-class I feel like when we have seen British suffragettes in movies it's kind of the Mary Poppins yeah mother yeah so what's one of the reasons this story is so appealing it's you know it's it's kind of the women on the ground yeah I mean first of all that I didn't know the story you know that I didn't know that these women had been through this that you know and they did such you know they did there was I remember seeing a photograph of a burnt church they've burnt down a church they they blew up houses they scorched golf greens you know they used to go into art galleries and slash famous works of art just to be arrested in protest so you know it really was kind of such an eye open of me and it was the first time the police used surveillance in our country so they had cameras and they were using them for the first time to track people and follow them and photograph them and then these photos would go in the paper and they would be used to publicly shame these women and it was actually one of the first cases the photo shop which was so I found so extraordinary so there's a photo that we have of a woman and she's sort of wincing like this and she has a scarf around her neck and then the original photograph exists and it's the policeman with his arm around her neck kind of strangling her and they covered it up so that they could release the photo of this woman so all of this stuff was just so surprising and then the role was just so extraordinary she was just you know this completely ordinary woman who was reluctant about all of this not interested in joining the women's movement and and in living a very difficult life and and through meeting these women are true becoming a part of this movement she kind of finds her voice and and she becomes extraordinary and I thought that was a really kind of exciting challenge I know all the filmmakers did a lot of research that they provided you with but I mean where did you even begin yeah I mean they had a website you know they done me yeah because Sarah had been actively making with trying to make the film for six years and talking about it for 10 years so they had a website where they started just because everyone was finding all these incredible things and and wanted to share them so they put a website together where we could download everything and then when we were in rehearsal we had tons and tons and tons of books but you just sort of have to dive in I mean we started with you know just historically like what it was like for these women how they live - how much money they ant you know what they ate and and how you know their bodies were affected by the conditions they worked in which would dire and all those sorts of things and then build out from that what was something that or maybe was there anything that you uncovered during your research that you actually like took to the filmmakers and yeah one of them is actually the voiceover at the end of the film where mord's reading this book called dreams and a desert and it says I hear the sound of feet thousands and thousands and they beat this way lead on that's from a book called dreams and and so when I was reading all of this stuff there was a diary written by this suffragette called Constance Lytton Lady Constance Lytton she was a very upper class very wealthy woman and she was a suffragette and she was protesting and she was arrested and put in prison and when she was put in prison she was almost immediately released even though she went on hunger strike and she was treated very differently from the working-class women and she found that despicable and so she disguised herself as a working-class Ofra Jekyll Jane Wharton and took on a whole different personality and changed her clothes and changed her voice and and then entered into a protest again and was arrested and was thrown in jail and subsequently force-fed and treated exactly the same as all the other women and she spent quite a while in jail and she wrote a piece she wrote a diary while she was in there and kind of it was really really helpful for us because it really went through the day-to-day what it was like to be in there including me in force-fed and and in that she said that someone had passed her this book and it was sort of being passed around the women to sort of inspire them and have this incredible package you can look up the whole thing online that's so beautifully written we had to shorten it a lot and and sorry and there was something about the way that it said I hear the sound of feet you know that there's all these women behind us there's all this you know we're leading this but with us so much work to do and there's so many women who are going to follow us and we just need to lead that just spoke so much to what we were trying to do with the film because we wanted it to to be a you know obviously a salute to these women and say thank you to them for what they did but also to say this is how much more we have to do to really have equality and to have you know mostly female cast the men in it are wonderful by the way Brendan Gleeson and Ben Whishaw are fantastic but it is you know primarily a female cast you have a female director female writer several female producers yeah I mean it was the atmosphere different on set yeah I mean you know it was it was I hadn't been in a room with that many women since Pride and Prejudice you know it was really it was amazing I'm just all always you know in rooms with men and and there was something about it I mean you know I've had great experiences with male directors and very very male crews but I think you know we had a male production design a female production design a female costume female hair and makeup so it was a big kind of group but um our cinematographer Eddie was amazing and he's a dude so there was one of them around but there was something about it I think it felt like you know this this is such an incredible story and there's absolutely no reason why it hasn't been told apart from the fact that it's about women and that a hundred years ago this happened and women died and for us to have our basic right to vote and and for some reason Hollywood thought that that wasn't worth telling and so we felt as a group of women quite proud to be the ones to get to do it it also seems to be coming out at a time when you know more and more women are speaking up about an equality be it you know equal pay or just basic rights yeah the timing could not be better yeah yeah you guys plan this pretending yes yeah I mean it is amazing and you know we had an election in England this year so it's a shame the film didn't come out there first but um it's great that it's coming out here we had you know responses from girls in England you know between 18 and 25 saying I'll never not use my vote again having seen the film and I think you know that's sort of a lot of what we were excited about with making the film and I think you said that it was your mother who had the idea to cast Meryl Streep yeah as Pinker's yeah my mom did your mom who who went from not wanting to be an actor is now a casting director to being most yeah yeah exactly oh yeah we were walking one day and I was telling her you know I just signed on and we were talking about who would get who was gonna play all the other dream people and amazingly we got the dream people I mean I'm talking Brenna bliss and you know Ben Whishaw Helena Amory you know sort of amazing but anyway none of that had happened yet and I said we put you know we're looking we're thinking about who should play Emmeline Pankhurst and she said well it's got to be Meryl Streep you know she's the most iconic actress on the planet and I mean Pankhurst was an icon and and I was like a whole month you're so sweet you know Meryl Streep's never gonna be in our film you know let alone for a you know a very brief um kind of appearance and but I mentioned it to Sarah and said my sweet Martin thinks that Meryl Streep's are blaming Pakistan and then you know the idea kind of got talked about and they and they kind of worked up the courage to send it to her and she said yeah Wow yeah uh did you tell me you were in the bathtub when you found out that she was yeah I'm done yeah and you didn't drop your phone no but I did what I was like oh you know like drop like caught it three times moment and she's been so remarkably supportive oh she's an unbelievable girl you know she's been an advocate of women's rights her entire career and so it's it's been just and actually it's been really really great to get to do a bit of press with her and just listen to her talk she's just fascinating on it so it's been that's been really great and I love when you know Emmeline comes out you know to greet this crowd yeah you know the excitement because I can imagine like on the set it's like yeah that's an icon that's Meryl Street yeah I mean you can see in the faces of the supporting artists that and I think some of them didn't know that it was going to be Meryl and yeah so she comes out and you know you just see on there and we shot a bit of that on the first day and then and we shot Meryl stuff and we shot the little scene in between us and then and then Merrill was due to leave and go and and then the next day we were going to shoot our coverage and she found out overnight that they hadn't shot us yet and we had no dialogue and it was just a wide shot basically of us staring at her and she found out overnight that we hadn't done that yet and she was horrified and she cancelled her flight and she changed all of her plans and was like I would never want you to think that I wouldn't be there for your coverage and you know um so you know I was just such a marker of what an extraordinary person she is she's so cool yeah I mean you ever have those moments where you're like that's me Oh Streep this is so cool yeah all the time yeah everything and for those of you have seen the movie I mean this is this is a period piece great costumes many locations yeah and yet it was made on a very shockingly small budget yeah yeah was it a difficult shoot it was quick and we shot a lot and we you know we were just rolling constantly and and resetting and you know a lot of it was difficult because we were having big fight scenes and our shirts getting ripped and they were a lot of them were original you know clothes from you know hundred years ago so they were very fragile so the costume girls are frantically sewing things up in between takes and and we shot you know we were the first film crew in history to be allowed to shoot at the houses of parliament which is ironic which is ironic yeah we were like can we can we do an anti-government protest with horses and women you know shouting and they agreed which was extraordinary um but yeah it was difficult you know it was with the pace I think not for me but for the director and producers I'm sure what would you say looking back on your whole career has been your most difficult role ah this one's up there because you know I was so concerned that she felt like a consistent character because she has such a dramatic change and it's only a two-hour film and I didn't want it to seem as if there was one woman who suddenly becomes a different person as opposed to one consistent personality that just kind of gets enlightened and yeah so that probably and then probably I did a play about five or six years ago called through a glass darkly om which was an adaptation of in Marburg and movie and I did it in this tiny space in New York and it was that was hard it was nowhere to hide it was very it was kind of almost smaller mess and it was a one-act play and she kind of loses her mind through the play and the nights when it didn't work were so painful but I loved it but it was a squad there's the Atlantic Theater come right yeah great company yeah I do would take some questions from the audience and I always apologize in advance if I if I mispronounce your name oh this is a question from two people Hilti and riley that's it's like a cool cabaret act when it comes to your approach towards your work what is the first thing you do when you get a script and how do you prepare before you come to a table read oh I'm shockingly bad at table reads um I don't do them I mean I do them I show up but I kind of like stare at the floor and my whole face goes red and I don't act at all I make a choice to just not act because I think like half acting is more embarrassing than not so I'm terrible and I'm always in so impressed by people who can do them but I guess I just read it as much as I can and then I start I did the thing I guess it's a method I'm sure if I went to drama school I'd have a name for this but but you know I start sort of looking at what I the statements I make about myself the statements other people make about me and you know all of that stuff that's quite kind of clinical just trying to figure out who the person is and then often I lose tons and tons of poetry I think mainly just give myself something new to sort of put in that might not be in the page so a lot of that but it sort of depends on what it is but mainly on Suffragette it was an awful lot of historical research which was also fascinating and also inspiring which I think we really needed just to read about these real women and and then regardless of period try and take the character out of the period and make it just a you know person as opposed to a person in whatever outfit that their way you talked earlier about music was there specific music you used for suffragette yeah I listened to a lot of classical music and oh I listen to a band called kodaline oh yeah yeah do you have that me yeah well yeah I know you do actually know about music but I see them on you to them and they had a song called all I want or something and that was that was quite tricky scene with my son in the film that um but you know when you're working also with a you know a young actor you don't want to kind of remove yourself that much with music you want to be able to kind of play with them and hang out so but that was the one scene where I didn't hang out with you because it you know he was quite emotional but yeah so kind of mostly classical on that though you ever use Mumford and Sons no that could possibly be most distracting distracting thing but no it sort of tends to be you know kind of and usually not classical usually it's kind of folk music that has some sort of story to it that I can kind of steal things from I'm guessing it was folk music during inside Llewyn Davis yeah yeah yeah I'm ashamed to say I probably didn't do a huge amount of research for that film because it was so it was came straight off the back of Gatsby and I just could have piled in but that sort of seemed to play into the whole and you know the whole kind of environment and they was the funny thing about them is they never let me do a dr and I can hear mistakes in my accent because you know I sort of I'm English but I can hear them and they they never sort of they were like oh we don't need a dr and I was like oh I must have nailed it and then I was like no but they did have me come in and do the plain safe version so you have to go in sometimes and record lines so that they can show it on aeroplanes where they can't show swearing so they had me come in and instead of saying can I swear sure Oh instead of saying they'd have me go like flicking or something that like looked absolutely nothing like the world if they found it so funny so you know like if you watch the plane safe version every time they swear it doesn't look anything like that it's like looks like I'm real overdub anyway so they let me do that but for some reason they just didn't think I knew anyway ha ha ha ha novel story by the way I can't believe how many people I've met who actually think LuAnn Davis was a real person oh really yeah they want to know what happened to yeah well I mean it here's appears quite closely based on tape and rock but yeah yeah with question from I think it's Yuki yah Maggie WA did I get that even closely right oh cool what's been your biggest struggle as an actress and how did you overcome that struggle um I think it's sort of probably my own insecurities and and I think also I have I remember writing an email to Sarah on suffragette and being like I just really want to make sure that everything I do is a really bold choice in the film because I do think I've had a tendency I can have a tendency to be to appear if I'm trying I'm just trying to be authentic but it can appear passive in film because I'm not I I think sometimes I'm maybe not I'm not kind of skillful film actor I sort of just try and do things realistically and then sometimes that doesn't translate to the screen in the way that I want it to so I think trying to be I don't like kind of acting but I don't I don't want to be on the back foot so to try and make myself kind of be on the front foot and be active in what I'm bold and the choices that I'm making that's probably been the biggest thing to try and and I feel like on madding crowd and suffragette that's been better but it still is kind of that's my ongoing kind of fight with myself um we have one from Lisa Ross which I feel confident I pronounce correctly what are some of the things you did in the beginning of your career to keep the faith when you didn't have the opportunities you have now thanks heart Oh in terms of in terms of jobs or in terms of what did I um I did everything when I was young if I didn't have I did I was incredibly lucky I didn't have a huge amount of down time the first couple years I worked pretty much all the time but I did all sorts of stuff you know and and you know I was I was pretty much a corpse in one thing and trial and retribution I did an episode of that and I and I was basically dead I was dead and and they filmed my murder but that was it you know and so I was sort of I spent like five hours and make up having an autopsy scar put on me and then I had to do this bit where I this isn't answering your question at all but I but I got thrown down a flight of stairs and then when the stuntwoman did it she landed on her skirt went over her face and her sort of bum was sticking out and they were like okay now Kerry you get on the floor and do that I was like oh could she not have fallen with her skirt not over there yeah you know and then there's like incredibly handsome actor Greg wise had to sort of pick me up and carry me up the stairs you know with my bum out and that was my whole job Wow so um so I didn't I was very very lucky to not have a lot of downtime but mainly cuz I just kind of went for everything I do and what's up next after this you know very very busy uh I I actually don't have anything planned I I the right thing hasn't come up yet and I've had a baby and um so I'm kind of gonna do that for a while tell them how long ago you had a baby and then she's nine weeks old I know right well I always say that we are so grateful to have you here but with a nine week old we are extra grateful and shocked um thank you so much for being our guest today thank you guys for being a great on it yeah

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 42,787

Rating: 4.8878503 out of 5

Keywords: Carey Mulligan (Film Actor), SAG-AFTRA Foundation, SAG Foundation, Conversations, Suffragette (Film), An Education (Film), Pride And Prejudice (Film), When Did You Last See Your Father? (Award-Winning Work), The Greatest (Film), Brothers (Film), Never Let Me Go (Film), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Film), Inside Llewyn Davis (Award-Winning Work), Far From The Madding Crowd (Film), The Great Gatsby (Film), Q&A, Interview, Career

Id: U2pze-jee5g

Length: 50min 39sec (3039 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2015