Carey Mulligan has said she is “gutted” for Barbie director Greta Gerwig after she was snubbed by the Academy Awards.
The British actress’ remarks come after Barbie stars Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie both previously spoke about their disappointment that Gerwig was not nominated in the Oscar’s best director category.
Mulligan, 38, is Oscar and Bafta-nominated for best actress for her role as Felicia Montealegre, the wife of esteemed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, in the Netflix biopic Maestro starring Bradley Cooper.
In an interview with The Times, she said: “I’m gutted for Greta because I don’t know what else you can do as a director to get nominated.
“You make a critically acclaimed film that’s also an incredible global success, and yet you don’t get nominated?”
Gerwig missed out as best director, but was named alongside her husband Noah Baumbach for best adapted screenplay, while Robbie lost out on a best actress nomination but was recognised for best picture as a producer.
Speaking about her Oscar nomination for Maestro, Mulligan said it “is just the coolest thing because it’s from your peers. It’s wicked”.
The actress also claimed that the actors who say that awards do not matter “are 100% lying”.
Reflecting on creating the film, she said that actor and director Cooper convinced her she would have to remain immersed in her character for it to work.
“I always loved being one of the lads with the crew, and I never wanted to isolate myself from people by doing anything excruciating like staying in your dialect between takes”, she explained.
“He (Cooper) said ‘There’s no other way to do this, you cannot flip between these two people’.”
Black comedy Saltburn, in which Mulligan plays Pamela, a friend of Rosamund Pike’s character Lady Elspeth Catton, was entirely shut out from the Oscar nominations.
It fared better at the Baftas, picking up five nods, including best British film, best actor for Barry Keoghan, best supporting actress for Pike and supporting actor for Jacob Elordi.
Directed by Mulligan’s friend Emerald Fennell, it follows a wealthy Oxford student, played by Elordi, who invites a less privileged friend, portrayed by Keoghan, back to his family estate for the summer.
Speaking about the award and audience reception to the film, which became a viral sensation, Mulligan said: “I went to the Saltburn premiere in LA and I sat with Em and there were 1,700 people having just the greatest f****** experience, so I don’t know.”
She added: “I think the main takeaway is just how incredibly it was picked up.
“Initially, people didn’t know how to respond and then suddenly it took over the internet and now it’s become this enormous phenomenon where you can buy candles called Jacob Elordi’s Bathwater.”
Despite starring in many acclaimed films, including Promising Young Woman, An Education and The Great Gatsby, she revealed she is “not a cinephile in any way”.
She added: “To this day I’ll make time to watch The Traitors, but I’m not watching lots of films.”
Mulligan, who welcomed her third child with husband and musician Marcus Mumford last year, also said she is more open in speaking about their relationship now.
She said: “I find it easier now because when we were first married I was really conscious of thinking, ‘I am not part of a celebrity couple. That’s just weird’.
“And we were both trying to build our careers in our own rights.”
