Carey Mulligan on Film Acting: “The Toughest Thing Is Trying to Sell a Whole Story” – Actress Oscar Roundtable

“I find film really difficult,” says Suffragette star Carey Mulligan, the difficulty being, “trying to make it feel like a consistent character when you’re filming everything out of order.”

“There’s always the things that you think are going to be tough,” says Mulligan, “like I’ve been nude once.” But it’s never the moments she thinks that end up being difficult for the actress. “The toughest thing is trying to sell a whole story,” she says.

But the An Education Oscar nominee isn’t opposed to the challenge. “All the scenes that you always think are really hard are the reasons that you take the job,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter.

She finds it interesting how people will tell her how strong her characters are when they’re actually “a mess.”

“Strong to people means real,” she says. “It means that you believe that’s a person who exists as opposed to some two-dimensional depiction of women.”

When it comes to increasing real women depicted on film, created by other women, Mulligan argues, “if you hear about a film that’s made by a woman, go and see it, regardless of whether you’re interested or not, so that it makes some money because it’s only money that is going to change [the industry]” and its perpetual lack of female directors.

The full Actress Roundtable will air on Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday, Jan 10, at 11 a.m. ET on Sundance TV.

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