Carey Mulligan Thought A Certain Performance Was Not-So-Great Gatsby

Netflix is getting into the motion picture game, and it’s betting big (aka $12.5 million smackeroos) on a period drama in hopes it will win over OSCAH voters. Mudbound, for one, is prominently populated with the ladies both in front of and behind the camera. Mary J. Blige and Carey Mulligan are among its stars, and Dee Rees directs. Variety sat down with the three ladies to talk about the film, which led to Carey talking about a certain 1920s period piece.

Dee talked about her uphill fight to go from small-time storyteller to potentially being the first black woman to be nominated for an Academy Award. Mary talks about her dramatic transformation to go from that trainwreck Rock Of Ages to a crumbling marriage and working on a set under Dee’s no wigs rule on set. No wigs?! Guess we know why Kim Zolciak wasn’t offered a part!

Then, there’s Carey. She took the opportunity to talk about how she doesn’t like watching herself on screen. She claims she thought she was kind of boring in An Education, to which I replied, “She said it, not me!” She seems to pride herself on being more of a stage and indie film actress than the star of big budget films, which she limited to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and The Great Gatsby. Well, she labeled her Gatsby performance as meh:

“I didn’t love my work in Gatsby, I’m not sure if I slightly kind of lost my way because I was intimidated by the scale of it. I think I might have been overawed by the experience and intimidated by the level of performances around me.”

Carey said the whole experience sent her into a string of smaller movies, like Sufragette, because she prefers knowing everyone’s name on set. She added Mudbound was a surprise, because Sufragette was going to be her last period piece for a while, because “I could NEVER be like that has-been Keira Knightley who lives off that kind of shit.” No she didn’t, but that’s sure as hell more entertaining than anything said after Mary giving her side of the no-wig rule!

If you haven’t seen The Great Gatsby, it’s basically one giant CGI trip where Leonardo DiCaprio rocks this bizarre Edward Cullen-in-the-sun glow. I would be intimidated, too, Carey! How’s Daisy Buchanan supposed to properly fling herself on the couch in a fit of ennui when her lover is in the corner radiating like an at-home Haley’s Comet??

Pic: Warner Bros.