Whoops! That's one Christmas catastrophe Carey Mulligan will never forget.
During her guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 35-year-old actress recalled an embarrassing moment she had while trying to deliver a suitcase full of presents.
The story starts off well with Mulligan waiting for a train. "It was one of those kid-free moments where I had, like, a latte, and I was listening to music, and I was listening to Taylor Swift, and I was like, ''Tis the damn season,'" Mulligan, whose husband Marcus Mumford collaborated with Swift for the evermore track "cowboy like me," shared. "And I was so in my little zone."
However, things quickly took a turn. "Like a very conscientious person, I realized I should sanitize—because COVID," she noted. "And so I sort of reached into my pocket to get the sanitizer out. And as I was sanitizing my hand, I saw this sort of motion out the corner of my eye. And then [I] turned, with music still blaring, to see my suitcase in the middle of the train tracks and it had just sort of rolled on."
Not only did she lose her suitcase, but she'd also lost her EarPods. "And my coffee was down there, as well," Mulligan added. "For somehow, in my panic, I'd sort of thrown my coffee."
So, she called for help. "Then this sort of station master man came along and I said like, 'I can just get it. There's, like, 10 minutes 'til the train comes,'" The Great Gatsby alum said. "And he's like, 'No, you can't just get it. You can't just walk onto a train track and try and retrieve a suitcase.'"
In the end, the station manager brought in some assistance. "So anyway, it ended up being like seven guys in hi-vis jackets, and they made an announcement and the whole train station is looking at me because they knew it was my fault that the train was delayed," Mulligan shared, "and I wanted to be asked to just swallow me up. [I was] thankfully in my big face mask just hiding."
Mulligan also noted she takes Christmas very seriously. "Everyone has to sort of still be in their pajamas. No one's allowed to have a shower first," she said. "You have to get your drink ready—you've had breakfast, get your drink ready. Sit down on the floor. Focus. Don't be on your phone or, like, distracted with other things. Like, everyone has to watch the person opening the present."
One year, her brother actually pretended to open the presents without her. "At which point, I say, 'I can't believe you started without me,'" Mulligan said. "And I burst into tears and walked out of the room and slammed the door behind me and locked myself into the bathroom….He was totally kidding. But I was convinced he had begun Christmas. And for, like, 20 minutes, Marcus was the only one allowed into the bathroom, and I felt like a 12-year-old. But I was so cross."
Watch the video to hear her tell the whole story.