AceShowbiz - Motherhood has brought British actress Carey Mulligan a new freedom from the critics.

The "Suffragette" star, who shares Evelyn, four, and Wilfred, two, with singer/songwriter husband Marcus Mumford, admits her kids have given her a new life balance - and her celebrity existence is no longer all that important.

In a new interview with America's InStyle magazine, Mulligan shares, "I have the best job in the world, but I've learned that it isn't the be-all and end-all. As someone who finds the public side of this quite intimidating, having a family has made me feel that if I wear a dress that people hate, or if I say something stupid, or if people don't like a film I've been in, it doesn't matter as much as it used to. It's freeing, in a way."

Since making her film debut in "Pride and Prejudice" in 2005, Carey has starred in countless critically-acclaimed movies, including "An Education", "Never Let Me Go" and "The Great Gatsby".

But reflecting on her career, Carey reveals she gets "whiplash" thinking about what she has achieved because she never expected to become famous.

"My dream was to be a working actress, but my expectation was, 'Maybe I'll be in (British TV shows) 'Casualty' or 'The Bill'," she says. "And then suddenly I got really lucky and just kept it up..."

"As an actor, you're always trying to prove that you can do different things. I have a fear of recognition and celebrity, though, so I don't have ambition to be well known. But I want to be really good at my job. I always want the next thing I do to be more nuanced, more interesting, more complicated."