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。
　　 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 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 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 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.