Carey Mulligan sealed her role as the enigmatic Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” with a kiss.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, “Gatsby” director Baz Luhrmann shared that the “Drive” actress stunned Leonardo DiCaprio with an unexpected smooch while they acted out a scene.
Luhrmann said, “So she does the scene, grabs him and kisses him” much to DiCaprio’s surprise.
After the scene, Luhrmann revealed that “she went out the door and I was just thinking, ‘My God, that is Daisy Buchanan. I wonder what [DiCaprio] thinks.”
“He said, ‘The way Carey manifests Daisy is like something Gatsby would never have met in his lifetime, something so delicate that he would want to protect her to an obsessive and impossible level.’”
“And it was done,” Luhrmann concluded about his leading lady.
The 27-year-old British ingénue reportedly beat out Blake Lively, Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams to win the role.
Also in the interview, Luhrmann heaped praise on Dicaprio, who he also directed in 1996’s “Romeo & Juliet.”
“I have known Leonardo since he was 19, he is a friend. When I met him he was a gifted boy,” he said. “He is now a man, and he is a man completely in control of his powers. And he only has two things he takes incredibly seriously: the environment and acting.”
The film arrives in theaters May 10.