/Film is reporting that Carey Mulligan has catapulted the top of Luhrmann's list, leapfrogging over other boldfaced names like Keira Knightley, Amanda Seyfried, Blake Lively, Abbie Cornish, Michelle Williams, and Natalie Portman.
But the Academy Award-nominated actress was evidently the second choice for Baz. Reportedly, he wanted Scarlett Johansson to play the etherially beautiful but empty-headed Daisy, but Johansson was unable to extricate herself from her prior commitments to Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo. So, Mulligan moves up to front-runner status and Johansson gets to smell like a wet llama for a couple months for Cameron Crowe.
My colleague Christopher Rosen wanted Michelle Williams to get the part, and while she's an excellent actress, Daisy is supposed to be such a stunning beauty that she makes a previously meek outsider completely change his life and personality for her. And though it slightly bugs me that such quintessentially American roles are going to foreign actors -- Stringer Bell, Sookie Stackhouse, Spider-Man -- I think Mulligan might be great as Daisy. What do you think?
ยท Carey Mulligan Said To Be Frontrunner For Daisy in 'The Great Gatsby' [/Film]