Thoughts on Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan?
Other than “OMG SHE’S NOT PRETTY ENOUGH,” which my thimble-sized, watermelon-scented brain is whining. See also: Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Maggie Gyllenhaal as whoever it was she played (very well!) in The Dark Knight. All three of whom I find very pretty and “like” insofar as I can like someone I’ve never met (although I saw Michelle once in a restaurant, so I DEFINITELY like her), but what is wrong with me?
Also, the backstory: Baz Luhrmann has cast the lovely and indisputably talented Carey Mulligan from a field of actresses that included Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Blake Lively, Amanda Seyfried, and Keira Knightley to star as the beautiful and much-longed-after Daisy Buchanan in his upcoming version of The Great Gatsby (with Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, Toby Maguire as Nick Carraway, and yet-to-be-cast actors as Jordan, Tom, and Myrtle). He did so by calling her and saying “Hello, Daisy Buchanan” as she picked up the phone, which is cute, I guess. And here’s a picture of her in costume. (Above is a picture of the appropriately pretty Mia Farrow in 1974.)
But mostly I just don’t think she’s pretty enough. And I almost certainly won’t see this movie, so why do I care? Am I just a petty, superficial asshole? Probably, yes. But it at least goes both ways — I mean, Leo DiCaprio has seen better days/years, although that’ll actually work well here, and I feel this fiery RAGE (which is ridiculous, because get an actual grip) when, for instance, movies suggest hobgoblin Paul Giamatti has a chance with Virginia Madsen/Rosamund Pike/Rachelle Lefevre/anyone he’s ever been cast opposite, but I guess I just want my movie stars to match? To match either their on-screen romantic interest, a preexisting envisioning of the character, or the actual, recorded attractiveness of the historical figure they’re playing. Deep thoughts! I’m basically just banging two dolls together in my head, and I probably shouldn’t have said any of this out loud.