I spoke briefly to An Education’s Carey Mulligan — the big breakout star of Sundance ’09 — yesterday at a post-screening party that was held at Park City’s Village at the Yard. Mulligan is easy to talk with and sharp as a tack, which is always the case with the super-talented. She’s just starting to happen with the press due to the wow eception to Lone Scherfig‘s film here at Sundance, but the talent community has been on to her for a while now.

An Education‘s Carey Mulligan, CAA agent Chris Andrews.

Besides her supporting role The Greatest, a Sundance film which I haven;t yet seen, she also has a small role in Michael Mann‘s Public Enemies . But her career is only now about to take off.

I couldn’t believe it when Mullligan told me she’s sat down with Warren Beatty to talk about a project. Beatty is all but out of the business as far as the public is concerned, but he’s just as plugged in as ever to the latest whatever and whomever. The meeting happened with the facilitation of her CAA agent Chris Andrews.

I told Mulligan I’d seen her performance as Nina in the Broadway production of The Seagull (which also starred Kristin Scott Thomas and Education costar Peter Sarsgaard) but didn’t mention that I didn’t recognize her when I saw An Education, probably because she wore a blonde wig in the play. I think I’ve fulfilled my inanity quotient for the day with this last paragraph.