True Story: Last night I was walking to a birthday party with a movie-mad friend of mine and we passed a girl with badly bleached short platinum hair. She was wearing a showy vintage coat and her face was squinching up on the verge of drama queen tears. We turned to each other in jinxy double take: 'Carey Mulligan: Shame live in New York, New York!'
It wasn't Mulligan but the look was so spot on it could have been the Halloween parade.
Maybe you had to be there.
But you don't have to be there to enjoy this photo from the set of The Great Gatsby. Normally when an actress turns ubiquitous we get worried (nobody is right for every role) but after her hot mess spin as Sissy in Shame, so different than anything we've seen her do, maybe she can do anything.
Not that "Daisy", another 180˚will be easy to pull off.
I've always loved this description of her voice (the novel is short on physical descriptions but wonderfully evocative in terms of character).
"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money — that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it ... high in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl.
More photos and such after the jump...
I'm still not crazy about this being made into a movie, despite my love for Baz Luhrmann. It's my favorite novel of all time and so perfect in its original form; not all novels need to be filmed. But, that said, it's a smart move for DiCaprio in particular who could use the about face that this role represents.
Gatsby is such a glamorous role, a charismatic young millionaire -- the movie star of his social set if you will -- with a life of enviable ease and privilege (at least on the surface). Leo has been playing the opposite for a good long while now. After so many obviously anguished men of furrowed brow for whom every day is a psychic ordeal, can DiCaprio recapture his original movie star ease?
Daisy (Mulligan), Jay (DiCaprio) and Nick (Maguire)
Even if the finished movie doesn't fare well with audiences and critics (always a possibility: see Australia), it'll surely look as spectacular as Bazmark productions always do... even in 3D. Looking at these photos it's easy to see Mrs. Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin winning yet another Oscar isn't it? She has two already for the art direction and costume design of Moulin Rouge! and she's performing those double duties again for this prestige adaptation.
Next year at this time, how many Oscar nominations do you think the blogosphere will be predicting for this team?
Most people don't remember that there have been six film versions before this one. Only the 1974 version has any degree of fame (Robert Redford, Mia Farrow and Sam Waterston in the roles now played by Leo, Carey and Tobey) though it's generally not the good kind of fame. Despite its reputation as a failure that version was a box office hit (finishing in the top ten of its film year) and won both of its Oscar nominations: Costume Design and Original Song Score or Adaptation.