Emerald Fennell had a lot on her plate while making her directorial debut.
The British filmmaker (known for playing ayoung Camilla Parker Bowles onThe Crownand for serving as showrunner onKilling Eveseason 2)scored a Golden Globe nominationWednesday morning for her revenge thrillerPromising Young Woman— a movie she directed while seven months pregnant.
Fennell, 35, also wrote the film, which findsCarey Mulligan’s Cassie committing herself to a revenge mission after her college friend was sexually assaulted. She recently explained toDeadlinehow being pregnant helped her on set during the 23-day shoot.
“I wassopregnant and I think that really helped because in general, I care deeply, pathetically what people think about me,” she says. “I just chose the worst possible career in every way for that personality trait. The idea of people not liking me and thinking I’m difficult, all those things, is just dreadful to me.”
Merie Weismiller Wallace / Focus Features

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According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Fennell was in her third trimester during the shoot, making the already-tight schedule even more hasty given her approaching due date. She went on to give birth to her son three weeks after the film wrapped production.
“We were all excited, of course, but, you know, s— got real. Suddenly, we had a real biological imperative to get the movie done,” producer Ben Browning recalls to the outlet.
In December, Mulligan, 35 — who shares daughter Evelyn Grace, 5 and son Wilfred, 3, with husband Marcus Mumford — explained to PEOPLE whyPromising Young Womanisso provocative to today’s audiences.
“It’s not about a sort of goodie and baddie situation,” she said. “I like the fact that the film makes us kind of reexamine, ‘How have weallbeen complicit in this?’ There’s so much to unpack about the way people talk about consent.”
Promising Young Womanis now available on demand.
source: people.com