凱瑞·穆麗根的好萊塢成名之路

和許多英國的年輕人一樣，凱瑞·穆麗根從小的夢想就是成為演員，投身自己熱愛的表演事業。但同樣和許多家長一樣，她的父母并不支持她的演員夢想。然而，凱瑞并沒有因此放棄。終于，19歲的凱瑞在編劇朱利安·費羅斯的妻子的介紹下參加了《傲慢與偏見》的試鏡，憑借著自身的天分贏得了班奈特家的四女兒一角，開始了她的演藝之路，并在幾年后憑著在《成長教育》中的出色表演而一炮走紅。

從《成長教育》到《了不起的蓋茨比》，我們看到穆麗根身上展現出的獨特魅力，迷人的文藝氣息和靈動精湛的表演融于一體。她是《成長教育》中清純天真、情感細膩的16歲少女；她是《羞恥》中叛逆不羈、任性放縱的年輕女孩；她是《了不起的蓋茨比》中輕浮空洞、令人討厭的黛西。時而清純迷人，時而性感撩人，凱瑞·穆麗根所飾演的女性角色總能在不經意間就吸引住你全部的目光。

It’s early morning， but Carey Mulligan， 29， has already been up for hours； she’s still on London time after having just flown here for the Broadway run of David Hare’s Skylight.

Mulligan was born in Westminster， in central London. Mulligan’s acting bug came directly from her mother， a Welsh university lecturer named Nano， who constantly took Mulligan on mother-daughter outings to Saturday 1）matinees on the West End. Young Carey quickly became obsessed—“I kept this huge catalog of playbills， from every single show I saw，”she says. A trip to Broadway 2）sealed the deal； when she was 14， Mulligan and Nano flew to New York and saw a production of Cabaret. “It was so amazing and immersive and raw and alive and dangerous， and pretty shocking for a teenager，” says Mulligan， with a slight giggle. “I recently saw it again with my mum and she kept turning around and saying， ‘I cannot believe I took you to this then！’ But I remember walking out of that show and thinking， Cool—yep， this is what I am going to do.”

Other than following her gut， she had no idea how to become an actress. While at boarding school， she was cast in school plays but didn’t have much real-world contact with the theatrical community. So Mulligan did what any sensible British teen seeking a life on the stage would do： She wrote a letter to 3）Kenneth Branagh.

Branagh didn’t write back. But Branagh’s assistant did. “It was something like， ‘Kenneth is very busy doing a show， but he feels that if you feel there’s nothing else you can do， you should be an actor.’” Mulligan felt enough encouragement to apply to drama school. Unfortunately， her parents had other ideas. They did not want their daughter to become an actress.“My parents were really protective and didn’t think this was a particularly solid career，” she says. “They didn’t exactly forbid me， but they wanted me to go to university. I had other plans. I’ve always felt really in control on stage. I loved that feeling. And I lost interest in everything else.”

So Mulligan lied. In secret， she applied to three drama schools and told her parents she was going off to university interviews when actually she was at auditions. “It was the most rebellious thing I’d done， the height of my rebellion.” In the end， Mulligan was rejected from every program.

Even as she applied to traditional universities， Mulligan remained steadfast in her acting ambitions. Secretly， she wrote another letter， this time to Julian Fellowes， the screenwriter of Gosford Park and， later， creator of Downton Abbey， whom she had met once after he gave a talk at her boarding school. This time， her letter 4）hit the mark. “I said， ‘Mr. Fellowes， you’re the only person in this world I’ve ever met. I’ve been rejected from drama school， and I don’t know what to do！’ ” She pauses for dramatic effect. “And then he invited me to dinner.”

As Fellowes remembers it， he and his wife， Emma， were throwing “a little get-together for 5）aspirants and， as a 6）caprice， invited her. Emma got a real feeling about her， that she was not quite like anyone else.” What came next was a classic tale of right place， right time—Emma heard that Joe Wright was looking for fresh faces for his new Pride Prejudice and suggested that Mulligan audition. “I want to state that Emma didn’t get Carey the job； Carey got Carey that job，” Fellowes says. “I’m always a little 7）wary of us trying to 8）take credit for her unusualness； she was born unusual.”

After a string of relatively small TV parts， Mulligan landed her first major stage role： a 2008 Royal Court production of Chekhov’s The Seagull， as Nina， the 9）precocious young actress who would give anything to be a star.

Though Mulligan hadn’t yet had a breakout moment on camera， that changed in 2009， when she starred in Danish director Lone Scherfig’s small-scale， independent film An Education.

As it turned out， Mulligan’s face fueled a whirlwind of 10）Sundance praise and glowing reviews， with the phrase “the new Audrey Hepburn” tossed around so casually it ceased to have meaning. Other actresses in Mulligan’s position—sudden global superstar—might have rushed into the new fame with a blockbuster role； instead， Mulligan took her unexpected success as a sign that she should keep playing strong women： “The role has to be a female that has been written really well， or is strongly representing some aspect of femininity—otherwise， I’m not really interested in it.”And in the past five years， Mulligan has played loners and feminists， 11）beatniks and clones， sad 12）flappers and 13）sloppy New York burnouts.

In Stephen Daldry’s staging of Hare’s Skylight， she emits a different kind of energy.

Mulligan’s performance comes to a climax in the second act when she delivers a speech on the subject of education， an impassioned 14）aria about social inequality. On the night I saw the play， her 15）soliloquy was so moving， the theater burst into applause. According to Daldry， the audience has reacted this way every night since the play opened in London. “They just feel they’re watching somebody disarmingly open， disarmingly available and disarmingly truthful，” he says. “When she 16）gets worked up， they get worked up.”

Gathering her coat to leave for Skylight rehearsal， she mentions that her parents， at long last， have 17）come around to her acting career. Her mother now accompanies her on set and is the first “18）voracious reader” of any script Mulligan receives. “We have this running joke in my family about how they were right，” says Mulligan. “They say， ‘See， we told you that you were never going to make it.’ ” As she turns to leave she says， “They have all proverbially 19）eaten their hats.”

現在是清晨，但29歲的凱瑞·穆麗根已經起床好幾個小時了。她不久前才剛從倫敦飛過來這邊參加大衛·黑爾編寫的百老匯舞臺劇《天窗》，時差還沒調整過來。

穆麗根在倫敦中心的威斯敏斯特出生。穆麗根對表演的癡迷是受到了她母親的影響，她母親是一所威爾士大學的講師，名叫南諾，她經常在星期六下午帶穆麗根去倫敦西區觀看舞臺劇。小穆麗根很快就迷上了舞臺劇——“我有一本巨大的冊子，收集了每一場我看過的表演的票根，”她說道。一次百老匯之行讓穆麗根產生了當演員的想法。……