  (Alex Urosevic/QMI Agency) |
The first time greed was good, Carey Mulligan was two years old. So director Oliver Stone had specific instructions when he cast her as Michael Douglas' daughter in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to his 1987 portrait of conscience-deprived corporate raiders.
"Oliver wanted me to watch the original to get Gekko-isms -- 'See how you can be like Gekko,' " she remembers, referring to Douglas' slick-backed sociopath, Gordon Gekko. "And I thought that was pretty difficult. There wasn't much I could do because the character was so different (from her father). The only reason I watched it was to have some sense of what Gekko was like."
Now in theatres, the latest Wall Street chapter finds Gekko, out of prison after being convicted for insider trading years earlier, trying to reconnect with his daughter Winnie (Mulligan) who just happens to be dating a financial trader (Shia LaBeouf). Eventually Gekko is insinuating himself in both of their lives -- as he and his future son-in-law conspire to sabotage a common nemesis (Josh Brolin).
Mulligan signed on last fall, just as Oscar buzz was building for her breakthrough British period drama An Education.
"I kind of wanted to be in a big boys film and be intimidated. There were other roles going on in England I was involved in, but nothing where I'd wake up in the morning and think, 'Oh s--- how am I going to do this?' So Wall Street, the challenge of it was to make the girlfriend role in a Hollywood film effective and not just redundant because I think a lot of the time -- through no fault of the actress -- the girlfriend can get marginalized and become an accessory to the plot. And I did want to be one of the few women in a big masculine film. And it was fun. Oliver didn't treat me like a girl. I don't think he saw me as a girl because I had short hair or something. I did feel like I got equal treatment. And I loved working with all of them -- Michael, especially. We kind of kept a distance. We were quite removed so when we played those scenes I didn't know him, which was appropriate since I didn't really know him in the film."
A year later Mulligan, who is dating LaBeouf, says she finally has perspective on her breakneck ascent from unknown to Academy Award nominee.
"It was all a big surprise. It was quite nice, though, because I was really ignorant to the process of festival buzz and awards and all that stuff last night ... I wasn't so aware of everyone on their BlackBerries, checking reviews.
"It's different this year. I know what's going on. It makes me uncomfortable. I don't like that the whole merit a film can have, the only value it can have, is if it gets nominated for an award. That seems like such a shame."
Not that Mulligan has only one pony in this year's awards derby. In addition to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which is playing everywhere, Mulligan also stars in Never Let Me Go, which bowed last week in limited release and will roll out across the country next month.
Adapted from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the science-fiction drama unfolds in a fictionalized Britain in which clones are created for the sole purpose of "donating" vital organs. It co-stars Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield.
"I loved the book," Mulligan says.
"I loved Ishiguro's writing. I loved how unsentimental it was, how much he said in these little tiny phrases. His writing also isn't overly intellectual. It doesn't exclude the audience. I was really nervous when I read the script. I hate it when adaptations do a bad job and I wanted them to get it right."
If they didn't, she says, she knew she'd have to answer to the novel's readers, including one very close to her.
"My mom is a massive fan of the book."
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
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