Carey Mulligan and Emerald Fennell talk motivation behind and reactions to 'Promising Young Woman'

"This story is real. It's real to millions of women all over the world"

'Promising Young Woman' has been making waves for the last several months now and it is well and truly on the road to the Academy Awards.

The film has earned five Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture, Best Director for Emerald Fennell, and Best Actress for Carey Mulligan.

'Promising Young Woman' has thus far won Critics' Choice Awards, a WGA award, and AACTA Awards among others.

We spoke to both Emerald Fennell and Carey Mulligan ahead of the film's release in Ireland, which you can watch above.

"I never wanted to make a film that was didactic, or preachy," says Fennell, who recently landed a major DC gig.

"I wanted to make a revenge movie with a female character at its centre. And it just so happened that the inciting incident for the revenge is something that I think is something we're increasingly familiar with right now.

"I don't think any movie, really, should be medicine or a lecture. It was important to me that it was as reflective of life as possible. Life as romantic and funny and sexy and beautiful, and also a nightmare."

Carey Mulligan said her performance: "I felt a responsibility to be truthful and to try and tell the story in the most honest way. And not having experienced what [her character] Cassie has experienced, you want to try and make that real.

"That involves being open, listening, reading, and trying to sort of garner experience without having to talk to anyone, have them relive their own experience.

"This story is real. It's real to her. It's real to millions of women all over the world. So there is that responsibility, but when we're shooting it, I tried to solely focus on what she was going through. It felt so intimate and wonderful when we were filming."

We also asked Fennell about how 'Promising Young Woman' engages in a dialogue with the #Notallmen trend.

"The thing for me, honestly, is that like male directors, male actors, male characters, we should just make whatever we want," she said. "We should make stuff we think is good. And I think that this movie is accessible to everyone. It's a thriller and a comedy and a horror.

"It's interesting how we politicise women's work, women's bodies. There are lots and lots of revenge movies where male characters go on a similar kind of journey and we very rarely ask as a society if the filmmaker has been on that journey.

"So I hope that the film provokes discussion in the way that all of the films that I love do. But I guess up to a point, you make it, put it out there, and hope people like it. I learned early on that I have no control over what people think about it.

"But certainly so far it's been really amazing how men have responded to it, women, people of all ages, from all places. I think all of us respond to something that feels real and truthful, and also something that's been made to be enjoyable. This is a movie that should be gripping and surprising and all the things, I hope, a good movie should be."

'Promising Young Woman' is coming exclusively to Sky Cinema and streaming service NOW from 16 April.