By Meg Walters
There is a timeless elegance to Carey Mulligan; a sense that she can somehow conjure up emotion in its purest, most ancient form. Characterised by a specific mixture of precision, delicacy and depth, Mulligan’s body of work is consistently exceptional. With Maestro, her latest outing, she reaches a new pinnacle.
Like many young white British actresses of the early 2000s, Mulligan got her start in period dramas. Her origin story is the kind of tale that old Hollywood legends are built on: after failing to get into drama school, Mulligan, with dogged determination, wrote to legendary writer-director Jullian Fellowes. Fellowes invited her to a dinner party, where she met the casting assistant for Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. She ended up landing the part of Kitty, the fourth (and arguably most forgettable) of the five Bennet sisters.
