BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Why Carey feels like a million dollars: Actress never had to care so much about her appearance than in The Great Gatsby
Carey Mulligan was draped in precious gems worth millions of pounds during the making of The Great Gatsby film — and a security guard watched her every move.
‘I would be doing a scene, wearing these fabulous jewels from Tiffany’s worth many, many millions,’ Carey told me, during an exclusive interview at the Plaza Hotel in New York.
‘There’d be diamond bracelets on each arm, and diamond earrings, and rings, and strings of pearls around my neck. And I could see this guy in the corner watching me intently, in case I ran off with anything.’
In Baz Luhrmann’s sumptuous new 3D screen version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age literary classic, Carey plays the selfish golden girl Daisy Buchanan.
Daisy embarks on a dangerous love affair, under the nose of her husband, with ridiculously wealthy Jay Gatsby, played by Leonardo DiCaprio (giving the performance of his career).
Tobey Maguire also stars as the book’s narrator, Nick Carraway, and Joel Edgerton plays Daisy’s husband Tom.
More... Which galaxy are you from? Bo Bruce arrives to the Star Trek Into Darkness premiere looking like an alien extra Look mummy, this is how you smile! Cheerful Harper Beckham and Victoria head to Paris to see dad David on his birthday
That main quartet of Carey, Leonardo, Tobey and Joel are sublime.
Carey told me that she had never before had to think and care so much about her appearance on screen.
‘All the characters I’ve played before have looked how they look — or looked like crap, which was great fun,’ she said.
Daisy was different.
‘There was a lot of emphasis on appearance. Not from Baz, but from my own reading of the novel. She has to be an object of desire. She’s the golden girl — the “king’s daughter”.
‘Catherine Martin’s costumes were extremely helpful in making me feel that I was Daisy,’ she continued.
‘I also had to feel as healthy as I could, because I had to look good in those dresses. I went to the gym, and ate well.
'We were a healthy pack of actors. Leo and Tobey kept themselves fit. In character, we were all drinking Moet; but off the set we behaved ourselves and were strait-laced in Sydney.
‘There was the odd barbecue, but no partying around and going crazy. Leo set the tone and we all followed. Healthy was the key word,’ Carey said.
Fitzgerald’s story is set in an exclusive enclave of Long Island, and in suites at the Plaza. Luhrmann, though, chose to build huge sets in Sydney and shoot everything there — although establishing shots of the real Manhattan, particularly Central Park, are used, too.
The sets lend the film a dreamy quality — which suits the story. I saw Carey at Wednesday night’s world premiere of Gatsby at the Lincoln Centre’s Avery Fisher Hall, wearing a simple, poppy red silk sheath by Lanvin, and Tiffany diamond earrings.
The red carpet was crowded — but nothing compared to the throng there’ll be when The Great Gatsby opens the Cannes Film Festival on May 15.
Watch out for...Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown records, who has written the book (with help from David Goldsmith and Dick Scanlan, who are listed as script consultants) for Motown The Musical.
If they could just remove every spoken line, and concentrate on the seminal catalogue of music by everyone you can think of who was groomed at Motown, then the show would be damn fine.
I sat in the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre just wishing (and hoping) for a pill that would shut down my auditory senses whenever anyone on stage spoke; and get them working again when anyone sang.
Frankly, if there was less ‘book’ there’d be more room for numbers by all those great Motown artistes — the Temptations, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, the Supremes and so on.
There’s a hilarious moment when Gordy and Diana Ross are at it under the sheets and I Hear A Symphony is playing. There’s chatter about Motown heading to London, which is great but please, cut down that book!
James Corden, who was in New York to meet with director Rob Marshall about appearing in the film version of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into The Woods. Look familiar: Jane Fonda and Alan Rickman as the Reagans The film’s based on fairytale characters; and Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep have already been contracted to star in it.There are complications, in that James has agreed to appear with Daniel Mays in Nick Payne’s new play The Same Deep Water As Me at the Donmar, which John Crawley will direct. But if the dates work out, he can do both.Forest WHITAKER, Cuba Gooding Jr and Lenny Kravitz, who play butlers who serve presidents at the White House.
Whitaker portrays Eugene Allen, who served eight presidents as head butler from 1952 through 1986. Oprah Winfrey plays his wife, and David Oyelowo plays his radical son.
A series of private screenings of The Butler were held earlier this week in Los Angeles and New York and three people who saw the film told me it’s extraordinary, and the performances are brilliant.
John Cusack’s Richard Nixon was praised. So too was Alan Rickman’s Ronald Reagan — and Jane Fonda’s Nancy Reagan is said to be out of this world.
Director Lee Daniels will screen some footage during the Cannes Film Festival.
May is a lethal month for shows on both sides of the Atlantic.
Viva Forever, sadly, couldn’t live up to its title; and Top Hat is struggling at the Aldwych.
But the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time has sold a whopping £1 million worth of seats since it won seven Olivier Awards last Sunday.
It has just extended its run at the Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue till October of next year, which is extraordinary for a play.
