Carey Mulligan at the Women in Hollywood Awards earlier this weekTwo Oscar hopefuls will hopefully dominate the conversation. Steve Jobs went wide today and the scrappy fighting-for-our-rights British period piece Suffragette is finally starting its US release in select cities. The movie has whethered some controversy of late and unexpectedly muted reception critically... at least in its first round. But release is a different challenge than pre-release buzz. If audiences like it, expect the Oscar buzz to reheat. At least for its leading lady who, we should remind ourselves, already had a minor unexpected hit this year with Far From the Madding Crowd.
Which means it's time to think about Carey Mulligan again. How many of Carey Mulligan's 14 films have you seen? The posters (and more commentary) after the jump...
Phase 1 - Who's the New Girl?
Pride & Prejudice (2005), And When Did You Last See Your Father (2007), The Greatest (2009)
Phase 2 - The Breakthrough. Oh Her...
An Education (2009), Public Enemies (2009), Brothers (2009), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), Never Let Me Go (2010), Drive (2011), Shame (2011), The Great Gatsby (2013), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Her 'star is born' year was 2009 with her Oscar nomination in Best Actress for An Education. She didn't go supernova thereafter -- probably due to a few very minor roles (does anyone remember that she was even in Brothers or Public Enemies?) perhaps from contracts signed before the Oscar hit. With that vibrant ache in Shame (2011), though, she reminded everyone why they got excited about her in the first place. A turn as Leonardo DiCaprio's ideal woman in The Great Gatsby became her first blockbuster with $351 million globally.
Phase 3 - Leading Lady. 'Oooh, the new Carey Mulligan is out.'
Far From the Madding Crowd (2015), Suffragette (2015)
It took longer than some of us expected after An Education, but this year she's the star attraction and a headliner thrice over: a Tony nomination for Skylight on stage, and two first-billed gigs at the movies. Can she keep it up?
Thoughts on her career?