Alison Brie defends 'Promising Young Woman' costar Carey Mulligan for calling out Variety critic
- Last year, Carey Mulligan said a Variety review implied she "wasn't hot enough" for her role.
- Brie told Insider she thought the now-infamous review was "egregious" and "inappropriate."
- "There are so many things to comment on that feels like fair game, but appearance? It kind of blows my mind," she said.
"GLOW" star Alison Brie is very proud to be part of the Oscar-nominated movie "Promising Young Woman," but she's more proud of her costar Carey Mulligan for calling out a movie critic who she felt implied that she "wasn't hot enough" for her role.
"It was pretty egregious," Brie, who was doing press for the Earth Day initiative The Planet Oat Project, told Insider of the review. "I felt really proud of Cary for speaking up about it because that idea is terrifying. To criticize the critics who are going to continue to critique your work for the rest of your career is a daunting idea."
In a New York Times profile that came out around the time of the movie's release in late December, Mulligan brought up a Variety review by critic Dennis Harvey, which implied that Margot Robbie, who is a producer on the movie, would have been better suited to playing the lead, Cassandra.
"One can (perhaps too easily) image that role might once have been intended for [Robbie]," Harvey wrote. "Whereas with this star, Cassie wears her pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blonde hair seems a put-on. The flat American accent she delivers in her lower voice register likewise seems a bit meta, though it's not quite clear what the quote marks around this performance signify."
Mulligan revealed in the Times story that the review drove her "so crazy" that she could still recite some of the lines from the review.
"It felt like it was basically saying that I wasn't hot enough to pull off this kind of ruse," Mulligan said. "I was like, 'Really?' For this film, you're going to write something that is so transparent? Now? In 2020?' I just couldn't believe it."
Brie echoed Mulligan's thoughts.
"There are so many things to comment on that feels like fair game, but appearance? It kind of blows my mind that in this day and age that people would think that's an okay thing to critique in an artistic space," Brie said. "It feels inappropriate."
Following Mulligan speaking out about the harsh review, Variety placed an editor's note at the top of the review apologizing to the actress: "Variety sincerely apologizes to Carey Mulligan and regrets the insensitive language and insinuation in our review of 'Promising Young Woman' that minimized her daring performance."
"It was kind of a nod to all of us actors, like, 'Oh good we can sometimes speak up for ourselves when we feel like people are out of line,'" Brie said.
"Promising Young Woman," which stars Mulligan as a woman seeking revenge for a traumatizing incident in her past (Brie's character is one of those people who feels her wrath), has been nominated for five Oscars, including best picture, best director, and best actress for Mulligan.