The 2010 performance Carey Mulligan wishes she could do over: “It didn’t grip me”
Choosing the right role is one of the hardest parts of any actor’s career, and while a big director, a famous cast and a major studio production might look like the perfect opportunity from the outside, the best performances usually come when an actor feels personally attached to the material.
That became clear to Carey Mulligan after she made 2010’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps alongside Michael Douglas. The sequel to William Oliver Stone’s 1987 classic arrived with plenty of expectations, with Mulligan playing Winnie Gekko, the daughter of Douglas’ legendary corporate villain Gordon Gekko.
On paper, it was exactly the kind of role that could have elevated a rising star; Mulligan had just broken through with An Education, earning an Academy Award nomination for her performance, but despite the scale of the project, something about Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps left her feeling creatively unsatisfied.
“It was a great experience doing Wall Street, but it didn’t feel there was a depth to the character,” she admitted to The Guardian, “It didn’t grip me in the way I wanted”.
Mulligan has never been an actor who simply chases the biggest films or the most prestigious opportunities, but rather gravitates towards characters that challenge her and demand something deeper that makes them impossible to ignore.
Speaking about the importance of fighting for parts that matter, Mulligan recalled a piece of advice from her agent in the aftermath of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: “You shouldn’t do anything unless you can’t bear the idea of anybody else doing it”.
It was a simple premise that changed the way she approached her career, where the focus was on whether she felt an almost unavoidable need to be part of a project, and so, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps became the example of what happens when that connection is missing, while Shame became the example of what happens when it is there.
During her audition for Shame, Steve McQueen’s uncompromising drama about sex addiction, which would be a far darker and risker role than she had ever played, Mulligan was determined to convince McQueen that she was right for the role of Sissy Sullivan, virtually begging him for the opportunity.
Looking back, Mulligan’s dissatisfaction with her 2010 performance was not really about wanting to erase the film from her career, it was about learning what she needed from a role. If a character does not grab you and compel you to explore its nuances as an actor, no amount of prestige can make up for the dissatisfaction.
