Carey Mulligan‘s sleek frosty-blonde look, seen at Monday night’s Hollywood Awards, is basically a Baz Luhrman creation as she’s currently playing Daisy Buchanan in Baz’s 3D version of The Great Gatsby. But she’s been looking fairly glammy for a while now, and I was struck this morning by the contrast between these two photos. The left-side shot was snapped by yours truly at Park City’s Egyptian Theatre in January 2009 just after the first screening of An Education; the other was taken the night before last.

Share your impressions by all means, but it seems as if the slightly overwhelmed, vaguely anxious 23 year-old I spoke to in Park City some 32 months ago is…well, we all grow up and become wise to the world, don’t we? It’s just that that this inevitable process has happened very quickly to Mulligan. I’m supposed to do a phoner with her tomorrow or the day after about her crazy-sister role in Shame and other current matters.