和许多英国的年轻人一样，凯瑞·穆丽根从小的梦想就是成为演员，投身自己热爱的表演事业。但同样和许多家长一样，她的父母并不支持她的演员梦想。然而，凯瑞并没有因此放弃。终于，19岁的凯瑞在编剧朱利安·费罗斯的妻子的介绍下参加了《傲慢与偏见》的试镜，凭借着自身的天分赢得了班奈特家的四女儿一角，开始了她的演艺之路，并在幾年后凭着在《成长教育》中的出色表演而一炮走红。

从《成长教育》到《了不起的盖茨比》，我们看到穆丽根身上展现出的独特魅力，迷人的文艺气息和灵动精湛的表演融于一体。她是《成长教育》中清纯天真、情感细腻的16岁少女;她是《羞耻》中叛逆不羁、任性放纵的年轻女孩;她是《了不起的盖茨比》中轻浮空洞、令人讨厌的黛西。时而清纯迷人，时而性感撩人，凯瑞·穆丽根所饰演的女性角色总能在不经意间就吸引住你全部的目光。

Its early morning， but Carey Mulligan， 29， has already been up for hours; shes still on London time after having just flown here for the Broadway run of David Hares Skylight.

Mulligan was born in Westminster， in central London. Mulligans acting bug came directly from her mother， a Welsh university lecturer named Nano， who constantly took Mulligan on mother-daughter outings to Saturday 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 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 didnt 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 Kenneth Branagh.

Branagh didnt write back. But Branaghs assistant did. “It was something like， ‘Kenneth is very busy doing a show， but he feels that if you feel theres 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 didnt think this was a particularly solid career，” she says. “They didnt exactly forbid me， but they wanted me to go to university. I had other plans. Ive 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 Id 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 hit the mark. “I said， ‘Mr. Fellowes， youre the only person in this world Ive ever met. Ive been rejected from drama school， and I dont 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 aspirants and， as a 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 didnt get Carey the job; Carey got Carey that job，” Fellowes says. “Im always a little wary of us trying to 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 Chekhovs The Seagull， as Nina， the precocious young actress who would give anything to be a star.

Though Mulligan hadnt yet had a breakout moment on camera， that changed in 2009， when she starred in Danish director Lone Scherfigs small-scale， independent film An Education.

As it turned out， Mulligans face fueled a whirlwind of Sundance praise and glowing reviews， with the phrase “the new Audrey Hepburn” tossed around so casually it ceased to have meaning. Other actresses in Mulligans 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， Im not really interested in it.”And in the past five years， Mulligan has played loners and feminists， beatniks and clones， sad flappers and sloppy New York burnouts.

In Stephen Daldrys staging of Hares Skylight， she emits a different kind of energy.

Mulligans performance comes to a climax in the second act when she delivers a speech on the subject of education， an impassioned aria about social inequality. On the night I saw the play， her 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 theyre watching somebody disarmingly open， disarmingly available and disarmingly truthful，” he says. “When she gets worked up， they get worked up.”

Gathering her coat to leave for Skylight rehearsal， she mentions that her parents， at long last， have come around to her acting career. Her mother now accompanies her on set and is the first “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 eaten their hats.”

现在是清晨，但29岁的凯瑞·穆丽根已经起床好几个小时了。她不久前才刚从伦敦飞过来这边参加大卫·黑尔编写的百老汇舞台剧《天窗》，时差还没调整过来。

穆丽根在伦敦中心的威斯敏斯特出生。穆丽根对表演的痴迷是受到了她母亲的影响，她母亲是一所威尔士大学的讲师，名叫南诺，她经常在星期六下午带穆丽根去伦敦西区观看舞台剧。小穆丽根很快就迷上了舞台剧——“我有一本巨大的册子，收集了每一场我看过的表演的票根，”她说道。一次百老汇之行让穆丽根产生了当演员的想法。当时她14岁，和南诺一起飞去纽约看卡巴莱歌舞表演。“那是如此地奇妙，极具感染力，让人印象深刻，充满活力，惊险连连，对一个青少年来说是个不小的震撼，”穆丽根说道，轻轻地笑着。“我最近和妈妈又去看了一次，她多次转过头对我说，‘真不敢想象，当时我带你来看这个表演！但我记得看完那次表演走出门口时我在想——真酷，没错，我将来要干这行。”

除了决定追随内心，穆丽根并不知道该怎么做才能成为一名演员。在上寄宿学校时，她参演过学校组织的话剧，但她并没有接触过社会上的剧团。因此，和所有聪明的、渴望登上舞台的英国年轻人一样，她给肯尼斯·布拉纳夫写了一封信。

布拉纳夫没有回信。但是布拉纳夫的助理回复了她。“内容大概是‘肯尼斯正忙着准备一部戏，但他觉得如果你感觉没其他能做的工作，那么你应该当一名演员。”穆丽根觉得受到了很大的鼓舞，决定申请戏剧学校。不幸的是，她的父母不同意。他们不想女儿当一名演员。“我的父母对我爱护有加，他们觉得演员不是一份特别稳定的工作。”她说道。“他们没有明令禁止，但他们希望我上大学。我的想法跟他们不一样。在舞台上我一直有一种如鱼得水的感觉。我喜欢那种感觉。我对其他事情失去了兴趣。

所以穆丽根说了谎。她偷偷地申请了三所戏剧学校，并跟父母说自己去参加大学面试，但其实她是去试镜。“这是我做过的最叛逆的事，叛逆的顶峰。”最后，每一所学校都拒绝了她的申请。

尽管穆丽根申请了传统大学，她依然对她的演艺事业抱着坚定不移的决心。她偷偷地写了另一封信，这次是寄给了朱利安·费罗斯，《高斯福庄园》的编剧，也是日后的《唐顿庄园》的创作人。他曾在穆丽根就读的寄宿学校做过演讲，那之后，穆丽根跟他见过一次面。这一次，她的信达到了目标。“我说，‘费罗斯先生，你是我在这个世界上唯一能遇到的人了。戏剧学校拒绝了我，我不知道该怎么做！”她停顿了一下，为了增加戏剧效果。“然后他邀请我去吃晚餐。”

据费罗斯回忆，他和他妻子艾玛要开“一个小聚会，邀请一些想要在演艺圈一展抱负的人，所以就突发奇想地，邀请了她。艾玛对她很有感觉，觉得她很独特。”接下来发生的事情就是经典故事里天时地利人和的桥段——艾玛听说乔·怀特正在为他的电影新版《傲慢与偏见》寻找新面孔，就推荐了穆丽根去参加试镜。“我想说的是，为凯瑞取得这份工作的人不是艾玛，而是凯瑞自己，”费罗斯说道。“我总是提醒自己不能把她的不凡歸功于我们自己;她生来就不凡。”

在演了一些电视剧的小角色后，穆丽根得到了她第一个重要的舞台剧角色：2008年，出演由皇家宫廷剧院出品，改编自契诃夫的小说《海鸥》里的人物，妮娜——为了成名能放弃一切的年轻早熟的女演员。

然而，穆丽根一直没有打入电影圈，直到2009年，她在丹麦导演罗勒·莎菲的小成本独立电影《爱的教育》中担纲主演。

结果，穆丽根获得了来自圣丹斯国际电影节的赞赏和好评，获得了多到让人麻木的“新一代奥黛丽·赫本”的称赞。其他像穆丽根这样突然成为了国际巨星的女演员也许会顺势出演大片角色。然而，穆丽根却把她意料之外的成功视为一种提示——她应该继续出演坚强女性一类的角色：“我所选的角色必须要是写得很好的女性角色，或者要强烈突出女性特质的某个方面——否则，我不会产生很大的兴趣。”在过去的五年间，她出演过性格孤僻的人、女性主义者、垮掉的一代、克隆人、悲伤的轻佻女郎以及不修边幅、身心俱疲的纽约人。

在由斯蒂芬·戴德利执导，黑尔编写的话剧《天窗》中，她散发出另一种不同的活力。

在第二幕，穆丽根就教育这一主题发表的演说中，她的表演发挥到淋漓尽致，那是一段关于社会不平等的激情独白。在我观看这出戏的那晚，她的独白是那么感人，整个剧院都响起了热烈的掌声。据戴德利所说，从这出戏在伦敦公演开始，每晚观众的反应皆是如此。“他们只是觉得自己看到了有人毫不设防地敞开心扉、毫不设防的真实、毫不设防的坦率，”他说道。“当她激动时，他们也跟着激动。”

她拿起外套准备离开去为《天窗》彩排，此时，她提到父母最后终于改变了对她演艺事业的看法。现在穆丽根的母亲都会在片场陪着她，还是她接到的所有剧本的第一个“狂热读者”。“我们家流传着一个笑话，关于他们的话有多正确，”穆丽根说。“他们说，‘看，我们早就跟你说过你永远不会成功的。”她边转身离开边说道，“他们都如谚语所说的那样把他们的帽子吃掉了。”