‘Was so lucky to get that job’: Carey Mulligan recalls making debut with ‘Pride & Prejudice’

WASHINGTON DC : Actress Carey Mulligan opened up about making ‘Pride & Prejudice,’ her film debut. Mulligan played Kitty Bennet, the second-youngest Bennet sister. Mulligan explained that making the movie felt “magical” and “majestic,” reported People.

Mulligan reflected on the 20th anniversary of ‘Pride & Prejudice’, which hit theatres in the US on November 23, 2005.

“I was so lucky to get that job,” the actress said. “I think that’s what always comes back to me is, we talk about luck a lot in this job, and it is so true that if you just — there’s a little twist of fate, that means you happen to be in the right room at the right time. And getting to be part of that was what gave me a career,” as quoted by People.

She also called her castmates “so dear to me.” Mulligan reunited with both Pike and Knightley in the years after; Pike had a supporting role in Mulligan’s breakout, 2009’s An Education, and Mulligan reunited with Knightley in 2010’s Never Let Me Go.

Mulligan called Pride & Prejudice “a big first job out of the gate,” but said she was “so protected” because she was a “small part of a big machine.” Kitty is one of the more minor roles in the film (though still an indelible part of the Bennet family). She said she particularly relished learning from her more seasoned castmates.

“So I feel incredibly lucky to have started in that place where I could sort of be in the shadows, but witness brilliance around me,” she said. “There was so much heart in it,” she said, calling out director Joe Wright for creating “a real sense of family,” according to People.

“I remember Joe took us to the house with the sisters, and we spent a day just playing hide-and-seek and sardines in the house to try to make it feel like it was our house,” she said. “And there was so much done to make it feel like we had kind of ownership of the story, or of these characters.”

“And the experience was just like, it was a cast of people between the age of 18 and 25,” she said, “just getting to live together in various hotels in the British countryside for a summer. It was magical.”

Mulligan was shocked when she got her next job. “Why isn’t it as fun?” she thought. “I was so confused. I thought all films forever were just going to be completely glorious. But it was.”

“We were all young and excited about the job and just loved each other and were having so much fun,” she said. “And it’s a timeless story. It’s so romantic.”‘

‘Pride & Prejudice’ also starred Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy, Simon Woods as Mr Bingley, Rupert Friend as Mr Wickham, Tom Hollander as Mr Collins, Claudie Blakley as Charlotte Lucas, Kelly Reilly as Caroline Bingley and Judi Dench as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Netflix announced its own miniseries adaptation this year, starring Emma Corrin, Jack Lowden and Olivia Colman, according to People. (ANI)