Carey Mulligan by Peter Lindbergh for Vogue US

Carey Mulligan at 25 is poised between two worlds. In 2008 she was known as perhaps the best Nina ever seen in Chekhov’s The Seagull, in London and on Broadway. In 2009 she charmed audiences as a sixties London teenager in An Education, and ricocheted between Europe and America collecting fourteen awards and twelve nominations, including one for the Oscar as Best Actress. Her next two films opened this September. In Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Oliver Stone’s fierce cautionary tale about the flameout of capitalism, she plays Gordon Gekko’s tough-minded daughter, Winnie. Though she claims the personal story takes second place to the business drama, she is the emotional heart of the movie. But that’s nothing compared to the controlled, transcendent performance she gives in Never Let Me Go, a small, devastating film perfectly adapted by Alex Garland from Kazuo Ishiguro’s chilling masterpiece, and directed by Mark Romanek. Right now she’s a fresh English rose. By this month she will be recognized as one of the great talents, with an exceptional ability to convey profound emotional depth.