After joining Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano at the Lincoln Center Institute’s Junior Spring Benefit at the Grammercy Park Hotel, the N.Y. Observer‘s Nate Freeman asked Mulligan about a book adaptation she’ll be making soon.

“What book adaptation?” Ms. Kazan gasped.

“Oh, I’m doing this little known thing, The Great Gatsby.”

“Oh my god, that’s amazing!” Kazan said. “Are you playing Gatsby?”

“Yes,” Ms. Mulligan said. “I’m playing Jay Gatsby. It’s a really big role for me, I’m gonna wear a sock down my trousers, give it everything.”

The future Daisy Buchanan said filming would start in September, in director Baz Lurhmann‘s home country of Australia.

“In Australia, that’s where the book is set, right?” Ms. Kazan said.

Ms. Mulligan nodded.

“It’s a great Australian novel.”

Can you sense Mulligan’s undercurrent? What her whimsy is really about? She’s a bit skeptical about Luhrmann and the film and going to Australia and the whole thing. She knows what a cranked-up personality and style monster Luhrmann has become. She knows that he’s mad. She saw what happened to Nicole Kidman when she made Australia. If I were her, I’d be saying to myself, “Thank God for Nicholas Winding Refn and Steve McQueen and Lone Scherfig.”

Update: Kazan is obviously very sharp, very quick, just playing a game.