English actor Carey Mulligan is known for playing complex, headstrong heroines, but in real life Mulligan often worried that she was in over her head. Mulligan is styled by Natasha Royt in heritage-style knits and cozy coats from Sacai, Vanessa Bruno, The Row, Prada, Acne Studios and more.

Sebastian Kim is behind the lens for Porter Edit November 2, 2018. Emma Sells conducts the interview.

We now expect articulate conversations in Porter Edit, and Mulligan’s is no different. On multiple fronts, Hollywood women are speaking out.

Her latest film, Wildlife, is directed by actor Paul Dano, who co-wrote the script with his partner, Zoe Kazan (both long-time friends of Mulligan). Based on the novel by Richard Ford, it’s set in 1960s Montana and charts the breakdown of the marriage between long-suffering housewife Jeanette (Mulligan) and her husband, Jerry (played by Jake Gyllenhaal). “I just thought she was such a rarely seen character,” says Mulligan. “She has an affair, she makes mistakes, she’s not perfect. You don’t see women messing up like that and being human, really. I’ve done jobs before where there’ve been interesting parts of the character that have been smoothed and removed in the edit like Botox, and the director says, ‘Yeah, we tested it and [the audience] really don’t like it when she’s not nice.’ Morally objectionable choices seem to be filtered out quite a lot for women. Not for men. For men, it’s quite sexy and cool that they’re craggy and stinking of smoke. But for women, it’s like ‘Oooh, no.’”