Mulligan: "I’m genuinely worried about getting ripped apart"

In an interview with 'The Mail on Sunday' newspaper, Carey Mulligan has admitted that she's incredibly nervous about critical reactions to her portraying the part of Daisy in Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming epic version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'.

"I’m genuinely worried about getting ripped apart for not getting Daisy right," she confesses. "Everyone has their idea of what they think it is."

Despite her fears over how people will react to her own interpretation of a '20s flapper, the actress has nothing but praise for Luhrmann's ability to capture the decadence of the period. She says: "The way Baz portrays the disgusting, overblown insanity of these parties is perfect."

And as to why Mulligan agreed to such a pivotal role?: "I’m drawn to stories about loss," she says. "I’m a romantic. Perfect love stories aren’t interesting to me. 'The Great Gatsby', however, is a mad, twisted love story."

Both Luhrmann and Gatsby himself, Leonardo DiCaprio, also spoke to 'The Mail'.

Luhrmann revealed that he hadn't even read the book, but was inspired to make his own version after listening to an audio version on his iPod while travelling across Russia by train: "I was sitting in this little tin box pouring red wine and listening to Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. When I reached the end, I had such a feeling of loss. It was one of the best and most moving experiences of my life. I knew I had to adapt it into a film."

Baz sees the parallels between 1920s America and today's financial cries as entirely apposite: "In that moment before the financial  crisis of 2008, I remember thinking that something wasn’t quite right. The greed and wealth were very reminiscent of The Great Gatsby. I thought, 'The time is right to make this film.'"

And, as DiCaprio says, the director uses music to draw even closer parallels to today's world. "Baz always tries to push the envelope with the music he puts in his movies. He wanted to make a link between Twenties jazz and contemporary hip-hop both being types of urban music. So I introduced him to Jay-Z."

Jay-Z joins his wife Beyoncé as well as Bryan Ferry, the xx and Forence Welch on the soundtrack.

Luhrmann even compares the rapper to Gatsby saying "‘I talked to Jay-Z about the film feeling saturated in pop culture. He’s a true artist. He’s a bit of a Gatsby himself.
He was one of the first people to see a rough cut of it. He said this perfect thing: 'It’s so aspirational. It’s not about whether Gatsby did criminal things or not; it’s about whether he’s a good person.'"

'The Great Gatsby' is opening next month's Cannes Film Festival.