Suffragette on the Campaign Trail. Votes for Carey. Votes for Women!
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 4:47PM 
Carey Mulligan stepped back out onto red carpets this past weekend at the Moet British Independent Film Awards (Suffragette was ironically honored only for its most prominent male actor Brendan Gleeseon) looking as fashionista fine as always. I was strangely surprised to see her. I had been imagining her safely ensconced at home and away from the demands of red carpets and press chatter these past two weeks since she had been out and about so much before the holiday.
I had the opportunity to chat with the Suffragette star very briefly at two separate events in her honor on two separate coasts and very nearly back-to-back before Thanksgiving. This after a busy October in London where Suffragette's opening was quite an event and just before that in September she gave birth to her first child, daughter Evelyn Mumford. And just before that she was treading the boards on Broadway in the play Skylight for which she was Tony nominated.
Whew. In short she's been hard at work for the past year... albeit with lovely A list working conditions. Lovely working conditions would be impossible to imagine for her latest alter ego, Maud Watts, the fictional laundress who reluctantly and then passionately embraces political activism within very real British history.
The most amusing anecdote I can remember from our brief chat is that Carey told me that her time in the makeup chair was the shortest she'd ever experienced on set. They called them 'rough ups' instead of 'touch ups'... since the actresses always had to be sweaty and exhausted rather than beautifully camera ready.
It's somehow perfectly endearing that Carey accidentally blinked when I took her photo (below) because surely she deserves a little sleep after the tireless promotion of the movie.
At the second event, an afternoon tea in New York, I jokingly asked her if she even knew where she was at this point what with all the travel and events. She played along answering with cheerfully fading confidence.
I'm in New York! ... apparently?"
Suffragette arrived at quite an auspicious time to engage with its depressing modern relevance despite taking place in the early 1900s. While the movie didn't light the box office on fire, her Best Actress bid still appears to be toasty warm albeit within a very competitive field. And if it doesn't happen this time there's always the next time for this tireless star.
Reader Comments (9)
Cuteness. I hope she lands the nomination. I thought the film was quite strong and she was fantastic.
Team Mulligan ! She has upped her fashion game and is looking effortlessly cool at events.
I fear that Brie Larson will win the hometown crowd over but Mulligan is a charmer.
Sorry but Suffragette was a failure at every level. It won't get a nomination in any category. Carey Mulligan will win an Oscar someday but not for this smug, wrongheaded drivel.
Great story, great cast, mediocre movie. I don't expect any nominations for this. Mulligan should have won for Shame
You're so lucky you got to meet her! She looks so pretty. And she was so good in the film.
All for her getting an Oscar nod. Would prefer it for Far From the Madding Crowd, but whatever.
Wouldn't be at all surprised to see her get a nomination for this, to be honest. In that sort of, Samanthan Morton in IN AMERICA way, you know? Maybe Jennifer Lawrence won't happen? Maybe she'll get in instead of Charlotte Rampling? I'd predict her at SAG given when it started screening.
I feel so sorry for her having to put on a brave face and soldier on through these events promoting a total flop of awardsbait movie with a two-month old back home.
She should be home, getting as much sleep as she can and enjoying her newborn. The first few months of your first born are such an unique joy (and challenge too, especially for the mother, who has to nurse). No one should have to work for those first 90 days. It is bad enough that men are rushed back into the labor market within a week of the delivery, but now women too?
I can only hope she had an easy delivery, but I do wonder if the studio is not trotting her around after the poor woman's having a C-section. I would not consider that type of harrassment outside the realm of possibility in our bizarre realm of awards season campaigning.
Too bad about Suffragette. It was only in the theater far away for about 10 days, so I haven't seen it. Abi Morgan is hit or miss as a screenwriter. I liked Shame, only the old Thatcher parts in The Iron Lady, but I really liked her new series, River, on Netflix.
And Carey Mulligan--well, I loved her in An Education, Drive, and Shame, but was bored by both her and the films, Gatsby, and Far From...,and Never Let Me Go. She is one to watch, though, if she doesn't get left behind in favor of similarly aged, more sparkly actresses like Knightly, Vikander, Maslany, Pill, and even Larson (who's very much the same tone."