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.