Mulligan: I was so antisocial

Carey Mulligan found meeting new people "excruciating" at the beginning of her career.

The 29-year-old actress 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. "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. I found the whole thing overwhelming and I really should have enjoyed it more. It's a shame, in retrospect, that I didn't just go, 'Oh f**k it, this is great.'"

It took Carey a while to get her head around the success and her agent offered some valuable tips for the future, suggesting the actress shouldn't accept a job unless she "couldn't bear the idea of someone else doing it".

Luckily Carey has chosen well and made an impact in movies including The Great Gatsby and Drive.

She admits to being lazy when it comes to work, but insists waiting pays off.

"After I did Inside Llewyn Davis I stopped for a year and a half. I'll just wait," she smiled. "But also, I wasn't looking to take over the world and become the leading light of British cinema. I just wanted to play interesting parts, so it was kind of fine if the next thing I did was [tiny]."