She also spoke about feeling starstruck the first time she met Meryl Streep, whose daughters, Mamie and Grace, she is now good friends with.

"The year I was nominated for An Education, I hadn’t met Meryl. We had that Academy luncheon, where you go onstage and shake someone’s hand, like at graduation, and as I walked off, she grabbed me by the hand and said: ‘Darling, I just got the best photo of you. I’ll send it to you.’ I was like: ‘Holy shit!’"

"Later, through her daughters, I met Meryl as the ‘Mum’, in the kitchen, having big dinners. When she came on the set of Suffragette I was very nervous because it was the ‘Actress’, with this incredible power."

Mulligan grew up in Germany until she was 8-years-old, when her family moved to England. "I moved around a lot, so I always had to meet new people," she said. "I was never the most popular or the most interesting person...It took me a long time to stop adapting my personality to others."

But she now takes acting cues from the leading actresses in Hollywood. "I also constantly watch people like Marion Cotillard or Cate Blanchett or Kate Winslet. I have a fear of being passive and what I admire about all of those actresses is that every choice they make is really strong. Even if they’re playing something very quiet, it’s visceral and bold."

Speaking about fame and the repercussions of tabloid journalism, the star said: "I remember being completely blindsided while we were shooting Suffragette. It was a Sunday, my assistant went out and got the papers and we were sitting in my trailer. I opened this magazine and this journalist had written this horrible attack on me. I hadn’t been to a premiere or done an interview for six months; I hadn’t done any press. I was not expecting to open a paper and see my name. It made me immediately cry and I called my mum and was really sad."

Carey Mulligan on her post-performance tears and learning to accept nude scenes