She said what she said.
Actress Carey Mulligan’s lie detector flares up anytime she hears an actor say that “awards don’t matter.”
In an interview with the British daily newspaper The Times, published on Saturday, the “Saltburn” star, 38, revealed her thoughts when her colleagues neglect the importance of industry accolades such as the Oscars while reflecting on her recent nomination for Best Actress for her role as Felicia Montealegre in “Maestro.”
“[Being nominated is just the coolest thing. Because it’s from your peers,” she explained. “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.”
Bradley Cooper directed and starred in the Netflix biopic as Leonard Bernstein. In an interview with Deadline, the 49-year-old actor recognized the importance of awards, and could not contain his excitement after the film received a whopping seven Oscar nominations.
“I mean just first of all, it is the year itself, to be included in a year where there’s just such incredible films,” he explained. “And then when we were finishing the movie, there was a discussion of whether it would come out next year or this year, and I remember thinking that I knew the movies that were coming out. I thought it would just be amazing if we were ever so lucky to be in a mix with these films, and these performances so it’s a thrill. And for all the work that everybody put in, for many of us to be acknowledged, you know, it’s like very surreal.”
Cooper also garnered three nominations from BAFTA including one for Best Director, the only category where he wasn’t Oscar nominated this year, but the actor confessed he wasn’t disappointed.
“I really didn’t know that we were going to get anything thing, so the fact that we got seven nominations is incredible,” he said, adding about the BAFTA recognition, “That really meant a lot to us. You know the BAFTAs are incredible and I’m excited. I just get excited that we get to go and we get to see each other.”
“Maestro” tells the story of the American conductor’s relationship with the Costa Rica-born actress played by Mulligan and the choice to have the British star play the famous Chilean-American actress received some backlash
“Maestro” producer Kristie Macosko Krieger responded to the backlash saying, “it was Bradley [Cooper]’s idea to cast her and we agreed” Krieger explained in an interview with gamesRadar+.
“I think she’s a national treasure and whilst she’s always been great, this material allowed her to go deeper, to give a beautifully nuanced performance. She knew how to be the rock at the centre of the movie — in some ways she’s actually the maestro.”
Bernstein’s daughters also praised Mulligan’s portrayal of their mother, sharing that she “would really admire Carey’s performance”.
“She’s incredible — especially as she didn’t have much material to study, just some YouTube clips of her TV work and our home movies. I don’t know how she managed to capture our mum’s fragility, strength, and vulnerability — all of those layers,” said Nina Bernstein.
Nina’s sister Jamie Bernstein added: “[Our mum] would recognise the brilliance of what Carey pulls off.”