-My first guest has been nominated for
a Golden Globe, SAG Award, and an Oscar
for her work in the film "Promising Young Woman,"
which is in theaters and on digital and DVD now.
She's also hosting "Saturday Night Live"
this weekend, with musical guest Kid Cudi.
Please welcome Carey Mulligan!
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
-♪ Carey Mulligan, Carey Mulligan,
Carey Mulligan, y'all ♪
♪ Lookin' promisin', lookin' promisin',
lookin' promisin', y'all ♪
♪ Carey Mulligan, Carey Mulligan,
Carey Mulligan, y'all ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
-Carey. -Hi.
-I'm so happy to see you. Thank you for being on the show.
-Thank you for having me. It's so nice to be here.
-Thank you for being here in studio, too.
-I know. -With an audience.
-It's my first one. [ Cheers and applause ]
-It feels great, right? -So nice.
-It just feels great, the energy from that.
Are you excited about "Saturday Night Live"?
Are you nervous? How are you feeling?
-Oh, my goodness. I'm so excited.
I'm very nervous.
-Oh, don't be.
-But it's going so quickly in a way that I think is good.
It's sort of like you don't have time to think.
You just go from thing to thing to thing.
-You've done the writer's meeting,
where they all pitch you ideas and --
-Yeah. And I hadn't been around people
for like a year and a half, so I was just like everything --
Every single pitch was hilarious.
I'm like, "God, this is the funniest thing ever!"
It was like, I'm the best audience ever.
'cause, you know, just human proximity is so exciting.
-I want to talk about "Promising Young Woman."
It came out earlier this year. [ Light applause ]
Sure, you can clap if you feel like it. Sure.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Racking up the awards ever since.
Congratulations.
Best Actress nomination for the Academy Award.
That's your second one. -Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
What do you remember about your first one?
Do you remember?
-I was talking about this the other day
to my friend, who was there, and I -- My memory is so hazy.
I don't remember -- I think I was just
sort of so overwhelmed by the whole thing.
I just remember being in a room with Sandra Bullock
a lot and being like, "This is the greatest moment of my life."
I just -- -She's pretty cool.
-Oh, man, she's so cool and she's so gorgeous.
And "Speed" I've seen like 700 times.
-"Speed"? Really? -Oh, my goodness.
"Speed" is the perfect film.
"Speed" is the perfect film in any situation.
-[ Laughs ]
-Really? If someone goes, "Let's watch a movie,
what do we watch?", you go --
-Oh, you could be in any mood, and you'd be like, "Speed."
There's never a time not to watch "Speed."
-I watched this and I was watching it
and I go, "Oh, no, no, no.
This is terrible."
And I just felt -- I mean, the movie is not terrible.
-Okay. -The situation was terrible.
-Yes. -Sorry. The movie is fantastic.
[ Both laugh ]
Oh, my gosh. -Start again.
-That's why I don't review movies.
-Yeah.
-No, I was saying the situation.
I go -- I felt bad for you, your character.
And I go, "Oh, no, no, no.
I don't like where this is going to go."
Then... Wow! Whoa!
If you haven't seen it. Wow!
And I was like, "That right there."
Vote -- Anything I can do.
Whatever I can do to tell you that
you are phenomenal.
That was such a good... [ Cheers and applause ]
And the whole thing played out great.
It is a -- It touches on a rough subject,
but, in a weird way, there is comedy in there, as well.
Bo Burnham was hilariously funny in it, I thought.
-He's so brilliant, Bo, yeah. -Yeah.
And we've got -- I mean, that's the thing about the film is,
it is tackling a difficult subject,
but it's definitely --
I mean, the majority of the cast were all comedians.
There's Jennifer Coolidge.
-Jennifer Coolidge, by the way, is --
-Genius. -She's unbelievable.
-Yeah. -I mean, she plays your mom.
-Yeah. -Would she improvise at all?
-Oh, my goodness.
Jennifer was -- So, she was kind of -- We were on a 23-day shoot,
so it was very quick.
So there wasn't much time to sort of mess around.
But there was a dinner-table scene
in the movie where Bo, who is my boyfriend,
comes and meets my parents.
And Emerald Fennell, our director,
came in at the beginning and said, "Just sort of, like --
You know, just, like, have, like, small talk.
Like, you know, ask her what she does for a living,
blah blah blah."
So, we're sitting there, and Bo's like, "So --
Oh, this is delicious.
What do you do for a living?"
And Jennifer's first answer was, "Well, I've discovered,
late in life, that I've got a real talent
for fish-tank interior design."
-[ Laughs ] What?
-But it just, like, ruined everyone.
And, so, then we -- And I can't --
You know, I'm the worst person in the world
for this, and so I just lost it.
And then we started again and we got to the same point.
"So, what do you do for a living?"
"Well, I train small animals to detect carbon monoxide."
You know? And it kept on and on like this.
-How do you think of that?
-It got to the point where I was --
Actually, in the film, there is a tiny bit
where you can see that I've just completely lost it.
And Emerald, I think, probably ran out of time.
She was like, "That will do."
-You're like, "Just take me off set.
Just get me -- I don't want to be rude,
but get me out of this set."
I've been -- Yeah, I've been in that situation many times.
But I love the attention to detail
and little details.
And one thing I've noticed, I loved your nails.
-Thank you.
-They're multicolored. See these nails?
And I just -- I kept looking at them
and I go, "Oh, my gosh."
It was just part of your character
and part of the movie for me now.
And then we were talking backstage.
I was like, "Are you going to go to the Oscars with your mom?"
-Mm-hmm. -And no, not this year.
-Well, no.
Mum came with me last time, and, actually, she's amazing.
She always comes with me when I'm traveling,
especially with my children.
But because of the situation at the moment,
she couldn't get in.
But she grabbed me right before I left the airport
and she was like, "I have a thing for you, for the Oscars."
She always gives me these, like, sentimental presents
you know, to open, like, on important days.
She was like, "But you should just have it now,
but it's a bit weird.
But, you know, just have it now."
And I was like, "Okay, mum."
And she gave me this box, and within the box was a box.
-Wait a second. In trolls or --
-No, she gives me this box, and I open --
Well, I mean, do you want to -- -You brought it here.
-Yeah, I brought it.
I brought it all the way -- It came all the way from England.
-That's the nails. Where did your mom get them?
-So, the last day of filming, I guess.
I came home and I was, like,
watching "America's Ninja Warrior"
and I was on the sofa and I just sort of started
ripping them off, because they had been really annoying.
And I just -- I don't know --
left them on the side of the sofa or something.
And my mom was like, "Ooh, I'm going to squirrel these away."
-Normally, if I see a box of nails in someone's apartment,
I'm like, "Call 911."
Yeah, or at least dial 9-1 and hope for the best.
But this is pretty kind of cool.
-Yeah. And then she found this, like,
weird, creepy box, and, you know...
-Yeah, with a nice light in it. I think it's fanta--
-Yeah. -I love it, by the way.
-Yeah, no, me too.
-Mom, that's very, very thoughtful.
It's very, very cool.
And I love that you brought it with you.
-It's coming to the Oscars with me.
-Is that right? -No, it's not really.
I probably won't be able to fit it in my bag.
-Yeah, I think you should do it.
No, we all think you should do it.
Yeah, you have to.
Thank you again for coming to our show.
I appreciate it. Break a leg.
Everybody heard that you're a joy to work with,
so everyone's excited.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Carey Mulligan in "Promising Young Woman."
Take a look at this.
-I think you should go.
-But a second ago, you were determined for me to stay.
You were pretty insistent, actually.
-I'm a nice guy.
-Are you?
-I thought we had a connection, I guess.
-A connection?
Okay.
What do I do for a living?
Sorry. Maybe that one is too hard.
How old am I?
How long have I lived in the city?
What are my hobbies?
What's my name?