Carey Mulligan would "rather not play accessories" on screen.
The 29-year-old has made her name in big Hollywood movies including The Great Gatsby, Drive and An Education, for which she won a Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA. She also received nominations for an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award and since then, she has done her best to choose roles that stand out and say something important.
"Given the choice, I’d rather not play accessories,” she told American Vogue. “And waiting for the non-girlfriend/wife thing usually takes a decent amount of time. You should make important films or tell important stories. I do think the goal has to be to try and find something that will be remembered in a long time. Because otherwise, if you’re not aiming to do your best, there’s no point.”
With this in mind, Carey jumped at the chance to play the lead role of Bathsheba Everdene in the upcoming adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. The part is a world away from the characters she played in the likes of Drive and Shame and Carey is glad the aesthetics are contrasting as much as the personalities.
"The more similar you look job to job, the more they relate to you from your previous roles," she smiled. “That’s why I’ve done loads of really stupid things to my hair in the past to try to not look the same.”
As well as her film work, Carey enjoys choosing challenging theatre roles. Earlier this month she started performing on Broadway in Skylight, after the production had a successful run in London's West End last year. Carey stars once more alongside Billy Nighy and Matthew Beard and admitted that she loves performing for an American crowd.
“I’ve always felt better in New York, doing theatre,” she said. “I think because there’s no one I know in the audience - or I can believe that more comfortably than I can in London.”
