Carey Mulligan: We weren’t allowed real sheep!

Carey Mulligan wasn’t allowed to act with sheep while filming Far from the Madding Crowd.

The 29-year-old actress stars as Bathsheba Everdene in the upcoming adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s famous novel.

In the film Bathsheba is courting a sheep farmer named Gabriel Oak, played by Matthias Schoenaerts.

But Carey said that despite the rural setting of the movie set, there were some aspects of the film that weren’t quite as realistic as they should have been.

"It was a health and safety thing, you can't touch anything because of the insurance and they didn't want us to act with real sheep,” Carey admitted during an interview on The Graham Norton Show.

The cast were told they would have to make do with a fake sheep instead of the real thing. But Carey, who stars alongside Michael Sheen and Tom Sturridge in the film, said that didn’t last long.

“They were adamant we shouldn't go near the sheep so they made us have a sheep double - a sheepskin rug taped to a big water bottle, which they bounced around in the water...,” she said. “We gave that a go for a minute but we couldn't and said, 'Give us the sheep.'"

Carey starred in various TV shows and had a small part in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice before landing her breakthrough role as student Jenny Mellor in 2009's An Education. It saw her nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe, and she bagged a BAFTA for her performance.

Despite the film propelling her into the limelight, it wasn't an enjoyable experience for Carey at the time.

"All the awards stuff; I had a brilliant publicist who would look after me. I'd walk into parties and just be like, 'I don't want to meet anyone,'" she recalled to Empire magazine earlier this month. "Everyone wants you to meet everyone when that stuff happens and it's excruciating. So I'd make this hostile area where I just wouldn't talk.”