At 25, Carey Mulligan is poised between two worlds–indie star and rising A-lister.

She was so amazing in An Education she collected fourteen awards and twelve nominations, including one for the Oscar as Best Actress. So it should come as no surprise that Anna Wintour picked her to be Vogue magazine’s October cover girl.

Dressed in the season’s hottest couture gowns, Carey, who is dating her ‘Wall Street’ co-star Shia LaBeouf, tells the magazine why she wants to be on Glee, why she’ll never get scary skinny and where she draws inspiration from. Here are some highlights from the article:

• [x006] Photoshoots in 2010 – Session 035: Vogue

(Video and full article under the cut)

On wanting a guest spot on Glee:: “I want to be in Glee, but I’m told I’m not famous enough to be a cameo yet.”

On why she’ll never get scary skinny: “The thinnest I’ve ever been was after I had my appendix out, during the London run of The Seagull. I went down to 112 pounds and realized my brain doesn’t work when I’m that thin, so I can’t do my job. That’s why, when I came out here, I never had that whole Hollywood pressure thing. I never said I wanted to be a lead actress; I never said I wanted to be a film actress. This need to trump everyone bewilders me. I’m only 25. I’m not better than anyone. I just want to watch other people and learn to be good.”

On growing up in the InterContinental hotel in Hannover with her family: “It sounds like you’re living in a great mansion, but the staff don’t work for you; everyone works for everyone else. We were part of a team, like mini waiters.” Carey and her older brother, Owain, were under strict orders from their Welsh mother, Nano, to keep their rooms tidy. They spoke German, played in the laundry rooms, lost guinea pigs behind radiators, ate Wiener schnitzel from room service. “They weren’t roller-skating around the lobby,” says Nano Mulligan. “We treated the rooms with such respect,” says Carey, “that it’s only in the last year that I’ve dared take anything from the minibars.”

On how she draws inspiration: “I’ve never had anything bad happen to me; I’ve never had my heart broken; I’ve never had any drama; I don’t have anything gut-wrenching to use. Ian is a brilliant director: He’d place one thought in my head, and I’d have a whole spectrum of stuff to mess about with. He said, ‘Build your own world; don’t use your own life.’ I made a book full of quotes, pictures, and poetry for Nina, as if it were my university thesis, my qualification for playing the part. I can only invent by drawing on what other, brilliant people have written that I can’t write or articulate as brilliantly, and when I read it, it becomes my own. “It’s crazy,” said Carey, “the best nights were when I’d come offstage with no memory at all of what had happened. I don’t know what happened to the audience—but I believed every single second. You can get completely lost in The Seagull.” Echoing what Meryl Streep said 30 years ago, she added, “It’s like putting on a hat—I leave it in the car on the way home.”

On dresses she avoids: Anything “above the knee, tight, girly, or ridiculous.”