Sumith Prasad
In Johan Renck’s science fiction film ‘Spaceman,’ Carey Mulligan plays Lenka Procházka, the pregnant wife of the protagonist Jakub Procházka. While Jakub ends up near Jupiter to study the Chopra Cloud, becoming the loneliest human being in the universe, Lenka deals with the absence of her husband at a time when she needs him the most. Lenka’s pregnancy is an integral part of Mulligan’s performance as she commendably portrays the angst of a mother-to-be. Even though the actress and her character’s pregnancies had entwined in the past, it wasn’t the case this time!
Carey Mulligan’s Pregnancies
Carey Mulligan was not pregnant while filming ‘Spaceman.’ She shot the movie in 2021 with a fake baby bump to portray the pregnant Lenka. However, the actress and her husband Marcus Mumford, the frontman of the rock band Mumford & Sons, were expecting their third baby by mid-January 2023. “She [Mulligan] was pregnant in the movie, pregnant in real life. She had a lot of things going on,” Adam Sandler, her co-star in the film, told Screen Rant about the actress’ life during and after the production of their work.
Mulligan confirmed that she welcomed her third child in October 2023 in an interview given to Vogue. At the time of the interview, six weeks had passed since she gave birth to a baby girl. “Oh, she’s great. Great. Good baby, 10 out of 10, so far. We’ll see how long that lasts,” the actress told Entertainment Tonight while appearing at the Variety Power of Women Los Angeles gala in November 2023. While promoting ‘Spaceman,’ she opened up about the challenges of finding the balance as a parent and performer. Due to the travel and unpredictable work hours required to make and promote a film, things like being a part of a book club became intricate for her.
Although Mulligan was not pregnant while playing a mother-to-be Lenka, portraying such a character while expecting a baby is not something novel for her. The actress was pregnant with her second child when she was approached to play Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie in BBC/Netflix’s thriller drama series ‘Collateral.’ “I wrote back to [creator] David and told him I was interested, but I was also five weeks pregnant!” the actress told TV Times.
David then incorporated Mulligan’s pregnancy into her character Kip. “He [David] said he didn’t see why Kip couldn’t be pregnant and only added two references to the pregnancy in the entire show. We just put a bump in and got on with it, and as my real bump grew we just took away the fake bump. It was tough towards the end of the shoot, as I was seven months pregnant and the baby was kicking me like mad!” the actress added. Mulligan and Marcus welcomed their second child, who is named Wilfred, in August 2017. The couple’s first child is Evelyn, who was born in 2015.
Mulligan has always been vocal about being a working mother in the entertainment industry. “I don’t think being a working mother in our industry has been made that much easier. It’s incredibly difficult. Childcare is so expensive,” she told Radio Times. “I’ve never, ever been on a set where they have childcare, but I’ve been on lots of sets where lots of people have very young children… I had my daughter on the set of [the films] ‘Mudbound’ and ‘Wildlife’ and loads of the crew had kids, but they had to arrange childcare. It’s always incredibly complicated,” the actress added.
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