Carey Mulligan made her screen debut as Keira Knightley's little sister in Pride & Prejudice when she was 20. Just four years later, she received her first Oscar nomination for An Education. Later, the Londoner caused a sensation with films such as "Drive", "Shame", "The Great Gatsby" and "On the Green Edge of the World". This year, the 36-year-old actress is now back emphatically. The film “The Excavation” has been on Netflix for a few months, and “Promising Young Woman” is finally starting in German cinemas. Mulligan received her second Oscar nomination for this, while director Emerald Fennell (known as Camilla Parker-Bowles in "The Crown") won Best Original Screenplay. Incidentally, the Londoner is currently in front of the camera for "She Said",Maria Schrader's film about the Harvey-Weinstein revelations in the New York Times.

Ms. Mulligan, your new film “Promising Young Woman” works best when you don't know in advance what you're getting yourself into. But you can at least reveal that this is a very unexpected, humorous revenge story. What attracted you to it yourself?

I am mainly interested in true stories.

It doesn't have to be about true events, but about stories that feel authentic.

"Promising Young Woman" is about harassment and sexual violence against women - and that is a topic that in our world could hardly be more real and, unfortunately, more ubiquitous.

The way the film deals with it is unquestionably unusual.

But in terms of content, no aspect of the film is really fiction.

Every woman I know has experienced these things firsthand in some form.

Or knows another woman who they happened to.

It's also about toxic masculinity, systemic misogyny, and trauma.

However, none of these issues are approached in the conventional way one would expect.

My favorite films have always been those that ask questions but don't give answers.

I find nothing more boring than when everything is chewed in front of me and I am almost directly told what to think.

If a movie makes people think, talk, and argue about it for weeks, that's great.

Certainly there are also good arguments for films that want to be nothing but entertainment and escapism.

But at least from an actress' point of view, they hardly interest me.

So a good film has to be a provocation?

He doesn't necessarily have to offend anyone.

But if it provokes thought processes and discussions, then I find that worth a lot.

That's why I never thought it was important whether all the reactions and reviews to my films were positive.

You said about Promising Young Woman that the script made you nervous.

What did you mean?

Not in the sense that I was concerned that the writer and director Emerald Fennell didn't know what she was doing.

On the contrary, after we got to know each other, I didn't have the slightest doubt that this would be an exciting film.

But the character I'm playing unsettled me, albeit in an appealing way.

Cassie is unpredictable and not always personable.

I didn't really figure her out - and that's a rarity in scripts.

Far too often I read stories that deal with one-dimensional wife or girlfriend roles.

Cassie, on the other hand, seemed like a really difficult psychological puzzle that I didn't know if I could solve.

In the film someone calls her a sociopath.

Do you agree?

No, even if I can understand why the person said that about Cassie.

Sociopaths are characterized by the fact that they do not feel any empathy.

Cassie is the opposite of that because she's brimming with empathy.

That is not least their motivation.

Just because she doesn't cry all the time doesn't mean she's not emotional.

Would you say that “Promising Young Woman” is a film that might never have been made without the #MeToo movement?