Glasgow Film Festival 2010
The Greatest An Education
sounding silly in front of other people – especially Americans. You don’t want to have a dodgy accent and let people down.’ While the film deals with a family coming to terms with grief, Mulligan maintains it was still a happy set to be on. ‘It had to be otherwise it would’ve just been horrible experience,’ she says, ‘being miserable all the time.’ Even so, she found playing a supporting role was no cakewalk. ‘You come in and have to sense the tone of the piece and see if you fit in. And you don’t know anybody, and you’re nervous and you’re inhibited by not knowing people. When you’re the lead, you come in every day. The runner becomes your best friend because he’s the person who gives you coffee in the morning. So you can do whatever you
‘I WAS JUST QUITE SHY . . . I WAS KIND OF A LOSER’
like. You never feel uncomfortable, you never feel you’re making mistakes because these people are trying to make this film with you.’
In truth, Mulligan’s days of playing support are probably numbered. Having just completed a role in Rowan Joffe’s remake of the classic tale of seaside violence, Brighton Rock, after her Wall Street sequel, she will be seen in Mark Romanek’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go. It reunites her with Keira Knightley, whom she met on her first film, Joe Wright’s 2005 take on Pride & Prejudice. Does she think Knightley sets a good example to follow? ‘Yeah, she does,’ she nods. ‘She has a lot of bad stuff to deal with. She gets a really hard time from the press sometimes, and she deals with it really gracefully. Also, she’s one of my best friends, so it’s hard to talk about her really.’ Expressing herself with a quiet but steely confidence, Mulligan – whose mother is a college lecturer and father a retired manager for Intercontinental hotels – admits it wasn’t
always this way. ‘I was just quite shy,’ she says. ‘I didn’t really have a proper relationship until I was 19. I was kind of a loser.’ Then she did Pride & Prejudice and something shifted. ‘I fell in love with everybody on that film. I was in love with [co-star] Rupert Friend for like a month. He’s one of my good friends now. It was like, “Oh, boys!” So I was like “You, you, you and you” – the boom, the sound guy, lighting, yes, everyone. I’d not really been around! I didn’t end up with any of them. I had very romantic crushes.’ Now dating her Wall Street co-star Shia LaBeouf, the good news is the angst-ridden dreams have also stopped for Mulligan. A year ago, just before Sundance, she started ‘freaking out’ that she was going to be lousy in An Education and The Greatest. ‘I had these anxiety dreams – very basic anxiety dreams,’ she says, giggling at how ridiculous this seems now. ‘Geoff Gilmore, the [former] director of Sundance put me in a car and made me leave for being disappointing. In Park City, in the main high street, he gets this black car and he’s like, “Get in. You’ve got to go.”’ What a difference a year makes.
The Greatest, Cineworld, Thu 25 Feb, 9pm & Fri 26 Feb, 1.30pm.
EUROPEAN The Ape
BEST OF BRITISH A Congregation of Ghosts
STRANGER THAN FICTION
BEST OF BRITISH Bomber
American: The Bill Hicks Story
STRANGER THAN FICTION Kicking It
This Kafkaesque drama from Jesper Ganslandt follows one young man’s journey through the absurdities of a single day and showcases new Swedish cinema at its best. Cineworld Renfrew Street, 9pm, Fri 19 and 2pm, Sat 20 Feb. Witness great British actor Edward Woodward’s final performance as nutty priest of a Cornish parish whose mischievous and pious spirit lives on after he dies. GFT, 6pm, Sat 20 Feb and 11.30am, Sun 21 Feb.
An inventive documentary about the life and times of a sadly missed comic great, one unfraid to confront the hypocrisy of his home country. GFT, 8.15pm, Sat 20 Feb.
Wry and droll British comedy from director Paul Cotter about a WWII veteran’s road trip to the French village he accidentally bombed during the war. Warm road movie smiles follow. GFT, 8.45pm, Sat 20 Feb. Documentary chronicling the experience of seven homeless football players at the 2006 Homeless World Cup in Cape Town as they battle challenges both on and off the pitch. GFT, 1.45pm, Mon 22 Feb.
18 Feb–4 Mar 2010 THE LIST 23
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