It would have been a real shame had Carrey Mulligan not nabbed her part in Steve McQueen's harrowing drama about sex addiction, Shame, which had the actress playing the sister to Michael Fassbender's troubled protagonist. As Sissy, Mulligan is electrifying, and the performance is perhaps the most complicated and rounded one to her filmography to date - unlike in some of her more recent roles, where she has been branded as mildly interesting love interests, Shame shows the actress in full force; it's a incredibly brave and revealing performance. But Steve McQueen wasn't always convinced that Mulligan was the right actress to bring Sissy to life. For a character who is required to turn up and turn Fassbender's sex addict's life upside down in a hurricane of champagne bottles and nudity, it seemed McQueen felt like she was missing something. Reflecting on their initial meeting about the role, Mulligan said: "Steve kept trying to leave the meeting. I sat him back on his chair and said: 'What do I need to do to get this job?'" Whatever he told her on that day, then, she obviously got it right.
