Carey Mulligan Responds To Promising Young Woman Review Critiquing Her Looks
Carey Mulligan responds to a Promising Young Woman review that critiques her appearance, questioning why that had to receive special attention. Mulligan got her big screen start with the 2005 Pride & Prejudice, playing young Kitty Bennet. Over the years, she accumulated a variety of television roles (including an episode of Doctor Who!) before scoring her first Oscar nomination for the 2009 film An Education. Since then, Mulligan has appeared in well-received movies like Inside Llewyn Davis, Drive, and Mudbound. Her latest, Promising Young Woman, arrives in theaters this Friday.
In Promising Young Woman, Mulligan stars as Cassie, a med school dropout who is grappling with the trauma caused by an event from her past. To cope, Cassie feigns being drunk at bars and, when a "nice guy" picks her up and takes her home with the intention of taking advantage of her, reveals her true sobriety and takes out her inner demons on them. Once scheduled for release in April, Promising Young Woman was bumped to Christmas because of the coronavirus pandemic. While its box office prospects are uncertain, Promising Young Woman is bolstered by excellent reviews.
Unfortunately, though, not every review was glowing. Promising Young Woman first debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, and though it scored positive notices even then, the review from Variety spent a concerning amount of time harping on Mulligan's appearance. As Margot Robbie serves as a producer on Promising Young Woman, the reviewer evidently believed she might have looked better for the part. "Whereas with [Mulligan], Cassie wears her pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blond hair feels like a put-on," the review read. In a profile with the NYT, Mulligan admits to reading the review, saying, "I took issue with it. It felt like it was basically saying that I wasn't hot enough to pull off this kind of ruse."
While Mulligan acknowledged that it wasn't an "ego-wounding thing," she still didn't understand why the review had to mention it at all. "It drove me so crazy. I was like, 'Really? For this film, you're going to write something that is so transparent? Now? In 2020?' I just couldn't believe it," she said. Truly, it's surprising that Mulligan had to be singled out in such away, particularly for a movie like Promising Young Woman, which seeks to present a new kind of female-fronted story. Insinuating that an actress isn't right for a particular role simply because of how she looks is both rude and misogynistic.
Currently, Mulligan is courting Oscar buzz for Promising Young Woman, which certainly suggests she's an excellent fit for the part. There are always other performers who could perhaps work just as well in certain parts, but their appearance shouldn't be what determines it. If Mulligan has the chops for Promising Young Woman (as the reviews indicate she does), then that's it, end of story. What really deserves attention is the performance she puts on, not how she looks doing it. Hopefully, more reviewers will keep this in mind going forward.
Source: NYT