Film industry ‘won’t let women be unfaithful’

MEN and women are equally unfaithful in real life, yet female characters are rarely allowed to cheat on screen, Carey Mulligan has said, as she accused the film industry of double standards.

The Oscar-nominated actress said male characters “are celebrated in spite of all their flaws” but women who transgress are invariably portrayed as villains.

She called for less censorship of female behaviour, arguing that audiences would rather see truthful depictions of women. In her latest film, Wildlife, she plays a 1960s housewife who drops her perfect facade.

At the Cannes Film Festival, Mulligan said: “Men can be celebrated in spite of all of their flaws.

You very rarely see women on the screen being unfaithful, but of course it happens all the time in the way men are unfaithful all the time.

“That’s something that happens all the time but we don’t want to see it.”

The 32-year-old actress, whose credits include An Education and The Great Gatsby, added: “It is so rare to see a woman allowed to fail on screen. Women are censored.

“I have worked on jobs where my character, in the novel or original script, has behaved in a way that is morally objectionable or unpleasant. We have played those scenes on set, and then when it’s come to the edit they have been cut out. “I have asked why they’ve gone and been told, ‘The

‘Unless we show someone’s flaws, we are not showing a full person.’

audience really doesn’t like it when she’s not very nice.’

“I think that’s such a misconception. I don’t think that’s true. Unless we show someone’s flaws, we are not showing a full person.

“When women are on screen, often if they make mistakes or they are failing, they are the villain.”

Cinema has a rich history of portraying philandering men in a sympathetic light, from Michael Caine in Alfie to Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction.

Statistics support Mulligan’s assertion that the sexes are equal when it comes to affairs. A 2015 Yougov survey found that 20 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women had been unfaithful, although men were more likely to be repeat offenders (49 per cent, compared with 41 per cent of women).

Mulligan was taking part in the Variety Women in Motion forum. She was also asked if she had ever been paid less than male co-stars, and replied that it had “definitely happened” when she was younger.