Yesterday, we thought we’d finally settled the long-running issue of Carey Mulligan’s appearance in “My Fair Lady,” as the film’s screenwriter Emma Thompson said on the red carpet of “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang” that “I think Carey is set to play the role,” the role being the film’s lead, Eliza Doolittle. Except, apparently, Ms. Mulligan isn’t aware of this.
Movieline/Collider spoke to the actress yesterday, at a press day for “The Greatest,” and asked about the project, and Mulligan responded with a non-committal “Well, that’s hugely flattering and that would be great. I really don’t know, at this point, what’s happening with that. That’s lovely that Emma said that. That’s really nice. But, I honestly don’t know.” Sigh.
She’s also unsure about the status of her other Thompson-scribed project, “Effie,” which a recent report in The Guardian suggested would go before cameras imminently. “I actually don’t know what’s happening with that. I read the script about two years ago. That’s another difficult independent British film. That’s hard to get made. I don’t know if that film is going, but yeah, I was attached to that.”
Either Mulligan is some kind of acting savant, who has no idea what she’s appearing in until she turns up on set, takes one look at the script, and immediately turns in a blinding performance, or she’s trying not to jinx the projects until the ink is dry, which is fair enough; most of Mulligan’s interviews have suggested a certain unease with her new fame, and we don’t blame her for playing her cards close to her chest. We can certainly buy that “Effie” is having financing problems, as it’s a difficult piece of material, and another, more commercial British indie that Mulligan was attached to, “This Beautiful Fantastic,” appears to have fallen through as well — it was meant to go before cameras at the start of this year, but there’s been no movement on it.
One project the actress can’t hide her enthusiasm for is “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” which recent rumors have linked Mulligan to a David Fincher-directed adaptation of. Mulligan responds “I would love to do that! I’m not even going to lie. I wasn’t lying before. [Hmm…] But I would love to do that. That would be insane. I’m obsessed with those books, as everyone is. But no, I haven’t had a phone call. That would be awesome. I would love to play that part, but that hasn’t come to me.” This may be because whatever discussions that were originally reported about the project were purely internal, because the rumors were incorrect, or because she’s being coy again. Fincher and Mulligan couldn’t possibly make a worse job of it than the recently released Swedish version, so we hope there’s some truth to it.
Mulligan doesn’t currently have a project lined up, but seems keen to do something before she goes on the press rounds again later this year for Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go” and Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” Movieline has more from the interview on the subject of those films, so head over there for more.
