Carey Mulligan never imagined becoming a movie star.
The 40-year-old actress was rejected from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Guildhall and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art during her younger years - but that hasn't stopped her from exceeding her own expectations in the film business.
Carey told The Hollywood Reporter: "It actually didn’t feel like the end of the world because I saw how competitive it was. And I also used a Sarah Kane piece about suicide for my monologue — that isn’t exactly a crowd-pleaser."
Carey ultimately studied at university before she was introduced to a casting agent.
The movie star got her big break in the mid-2000s, when she appeared alongside Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen in Pride and Prejudice.
Carey - who later starred in a play at London’s Royal Court Theatre, and in an adaptation of Bleak House - said: "By that point, I realised, ‘Oh, this is probably my job.’
"My expectation was to roll on doing supporting parts in TV, plays if I could, and tiny parts in film."
Carey has played plenty of wives and girlfriends in movies about men, but she's open to all sorts of roles and projects.
She said: "If there’s a great director or a great writer, and it feels like there’s an opening to do something slightly more interesting, that’s when I’ll jump in."
Despite this, Carey previously insisted that her home life is much more important than her career.
The actress believes that spending quality time at home with her husband and their kids is more important than her work life.
Carey - who has three children with music star Marcus Mumford - shared: "I feel very strongly about my job and I love my job and it’s the best job in the world, but also, it is a job.
"It can’t be more important than when I have to get home and have to do bathtime. Someone said the other day, ‘Did you bring Cassie home with you?’
"And I was like, ‘The nails I brought home, the hair extensions I brought home, but everything else, you can’t bring that into a house with two kids'. You’ve got to leave all of that stuff at work. So I think it’s a system that works for me for now."
Carey also revealed that Nicole Kidman has been a big "inspiration" for her.
Carey explained: "She was actually somewhat of an inspiration for us for Promising Young Woman.
"She’s just extraordinary. She’s sort of simultaneously charming, and enticing, and terrifying. I think it’s just a masterclass."
