Carey Mulligan Says Actors Who Claim They Don't Care About Awards Are '100 Percent Lying'

Carey Mulligan has a hard time believing actors who claim that awards don’t matter.

In a new interview published on Saturday with British daily newspaper The Times, the Westminster, London-born talent, 38, gave her honest opinion about those in her line of work who downplay prestigious accolades. 

Reflecting on her recent Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Felicia Montealegre in Maestro, Mulligan praised the opportunity to be recognized.

She said that being nominated “is just the coolest thing. Because it’s from your peers. It’s wicked. And the thousands (literally) of actors that I’ve met who say that awards don’t matter and that it’s the work that counts? They are 100 percent lying.”

In Maestro, the actress stars alongside Bradley Cooper, who portrays Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix biopic. The film tells the story of the American conductor’s relationship with the Costa Rica-born actress.

Interestingly enough, Mulligan has not auditioned for a role since 2014, she told The Times.

She landed the part of Montealegre after she and Cooper, 49, had a chance meeting that ended with him rushing her to the hospital. Mulligan was performing a solo Broadway show of Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys when a stage curtain fell on her head. 

Last month, the Silver Linings Playbook actor recalled the incident on The Graham Norton Show.

“Carey was in a one-woman show, and I went backstage to meet her and realized something was not right and I insisted on taking her to the emergency room," Cooper said.

“During the show, a bit of set hit me on the head," Mulligan explained. "I carried on but when it was over, I started crying and thought I was a goner."

"I was sobbing on the floor when Bradley turned up and, realizing I wasn’t OK, he took me to hospital. You can imagine how delighted the nurse was!”

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Elsewhere in her interview with The Times, she said she was “gutted” for Greta Gerwig when the Barbie filmmaker didn’t receive a best director Oscar nomination for the project.

“I don’t know what else you can do as a director to get nominated," she said. "You make a critically acclaimed film that’s also an incredible global success, and yet you don’t get nominated?” 

The Saltburn actress knows a thing or two about being snubbed. 

In February 2023, Mulligan was incorrectly announced as the winner at the 2023 BAFTA Awards for the best supporting actress award for her performance in the #MeToo drama She Said.

The actual winner was The Banshees of Inisherin star Kerry Condon. However, the deaf actor and presenter Troy Kotsur signed the word “Kerry,” which was announced by the interpreter as “Carey,” causing the mixup. 

Everyone else in the Royal Festival Hall was “just kind of slow clapping as if to say, ‘This feels very wrong,’” Mulligan told the British newspaper.

She added that one of her closest friends, 50 Shades of Grey actor Jamie Dornan, who was seated just two rows in front of her, laughed hysterically at the slip-up.