"Education" star Carey Mulligan enjoying spotlight

By Mary Murphy

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It takes a lot to frighten Carey Mulligan, the British actress who delivered a fearless performance as a 1960s schoolgirl seduced by an older man in "An Education."

Not even a recent screening of "Paranormal Activity," the low-budget horror of the moment could do it, which was a disappointment.

"I really wanted to be scared -- I like to be scared. But I wasn't," she recalls.

She's equally fearless when it comes to tackling the media firestorm that has accompanied her newfound stardom.

"Shia (LaBeouf) tells me to enjoy it," she says, referring to her "Wall Street 2" co-star and the man she is reportedly dating -- though she's careful to dodge questions about him. "He says I can get upset about the photographers, but by the end of the day 98% of it should be positive."

It certainly is positive compared to the vagabond life the actress knew growing up, as she, her mother and older brother followed her father, a hotel executive, from London to Germany and back.

"My life was kind of weird," she reflects. "My mother would cook, but we would get looked after by lots of maids. It felt like we lived in these big, enormous houses with lots of guests."

When the family returned to London for good, her father became the manager of the Mayfair Hotel -- where, coincidentally, Mulligan did many promotional interviews for "An Education."