Variety critic says he was 'appalled to be tarred as a misogynist' by Carey Mulligan

• The Variety film critic Dennis Harvey has hit back at Carey Mulligan's accusation of misogyny.
• Mulligan had said he implied she "wasn't hot enough" for her role in "Promising Young Woman."
• "I don't actually go around dwelling on the comparative hotnesses of young actresses," he said.

In the latest chapter of a "Promising Young Woman" feud, the Variety critic Dennis Harvey has responded to Carey Mulligan's claims that his 2020 review of the film implied she wasn't "hot enough" for her role.

Speaking with The Guardian, Harvey, a film-industry stalwart, said he did not intend to make such a suggestion and described Mulligan's interpretation of the review as "bizarre."

"I did not say or even mean to imply Mulligan is 'not hot enough' for the role," he said. "I'm a 60-year-old gay man. I don't actually go around dwelling on the comparative hotnesses of young actresses, let alone writing about that."

He continued to say he was "appalled to be tarred as misogynist," which he said was "something very alien to my personal beliefs or politics."

He added: "This whole thing could not be more horrifying to me than if someone had claimed I was a gung-ho Trump supporter."

The film is out now but had been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Harvey's review was published more than a year ago, and though it was largely positive he described Mulligan as an "odd choice" for the lead role and said Margot Robbie, who is a producer on the movie, might have been better suited to play the lead.

Mulligan responded to the review in a recent New York Times profile describing his remarks as misogynistic.

"It felt like it was basically saying that I wasn't hot enough to pull off this kind of ruse," she said. "It drove me so crazy. 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."

Variety later placed an editor's note above Harvey's review apologizing to Mulligan.

"What I was attempting to write about was the emphasis in the film and [Mulligan's] performance on disguise, role-playing, and deliberate narrative misdirection. Nor was bringing up Margot Robbie meant to be any comparison in 'personal appearance,'" Harvey told The Guardian.

Harvey conceded that his review might not have been nuanced enough to correctly convey his points about Mulligan's performance but added that he still didn't understand Mulligan's strong conclusions.

"I assumed that filmmakers who created such a complex, layered movie wouldn't interpret what I wrote as some kind of simpleminded sexism," he said. "And while Carey Mulligan is certainly entitled to interpret the review however she likes, her projection of it suggesting she's 'not hot enough' is, to me, just bizarre. I'm sorry she feels that way. But I'm also sorry that's a conclusion she would jump to because it's quite a leap."

He added that the widespread discussion surrounding his review had placed the future of his career in doubt.

"It's left in question whether after 30 years of writing for Variety I will now be sacked because of review content no one found offensive until it became fodder for a viral trend piece," he said.