From musicals to melodramas, one thing Amanda Seyfried’s proven is that she’s utterly irresistible.
From musicals to melodramas, one thing Amanda Seyfried’s proven is that she’s utterly irresistible.
With her blonde hair, bright blue eyes and wholesome charm, Amanda Seyfried could have easily inherited the “America’s Sweetheart” crown from the likes of Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan. Instead, she’s steered clear of girl-nextdoor roles and has gone from bimbo in Mean Girls and ingenue in Mamma Mia!, to porn star (Lovelace), psychotic lover (Chloe), and troubled teenager (Gone) on-screen.
Which leads us to conclude that there’s more to her than meets the eye. One moment, she’s got us cackling with laughter, the next, she’s making us crumble into tears before making our hearts burst with her amazing singing voice. And off-screen, her fiercely private yet vulnerably honest self, as well as her love-hate relationship with the limelight, only makes the versatile actress more fascinating.
WHO’S THAT GIRL?
As an actress, Amanda simply can’t be put into a box, thanks to her ability to effortlessly shift between genres and characters so easily. From indie to commercial, horror to rom-com, period, musical, action, biopic and even psychological thriller – you name it, she’s done it. Thanks to these choices, Amanda’s managed to avoid falling into the trap of just being the decade’s go-to girl-next-door – a gilded trap that many actresses find themselves caught up in (ahem, Meg Ryan), then desperate to escape when the inevitable expiration date on playing the young starlet comes up. So no. No more Nicholas Sparks rom-coms for Amanda… for now.
So while she capitalised on her babydoll looks to jumpstart her career, there was always a need to grow up – fast. After breaking through with Mean Girls, she turned to playing a highschool student again in Jennifer’s Body, but a makeout sesh with Megan Fox in the teen-screamer made everyone sit up and notice a grown-up Amanda. Still, despite the movie’s adult themes, Amanda considers her subsequent role in Chloe her first truly grown-up character. “It felt very adult to make the decision to do that movie,” says Amanda in an interview with Vogue. “And then very adult to film it.”
So when the time came for Amanda to star as pornographic star-turnedactivist Linda Lovelace in the 2013 movie Lovelace, people were surprised as it was a risky (and not to mention risque) role, particularly as it followed her massively successful turn in Les Misérables as one of Broadway’s ultimate ingénues, Colette. Controversial material, check. Racy nude scenes, check. But Amanda said yes to the role immediately after reading the script. And her daring spirit paid off – despite the film’s lacklustre performance at the box office, she was critically lauded for her sensitive portrayal of Linda.
While Amanda has played many selfdestructive characters, off-camera, she’s a homebody with a stable relationship, a dog, and an excellent work ethic. So how does she channel the crazy into her characters? Turns out, her down-toearth lifestyle is a boon: “[Playing dark characters] can go either way so easily if you’re not grounded or you don’t respect yourself or you’re too young,” she says in an interview with Vogue.
TEARS AND FEARS
For someone so articulate and confident, Amanda Seyfried is not someone we’d associate with anxiety. But while doing an interview with David Letterman, she revealed that she was actually “kinda drunk” and that she’s always needed a tipple or two to calm her pre-interview nerves. It was watching that interview that made the grounded star decide to go for therapy. “[The drinks] made it fun for me, but then I watched it and was like ‘That is not what I want to promote about myself,’” the actress later admitted to Vogue.
Therapy might seem like a stretch, but it turns out her issues weren’t just fame-induced. Amanda eventually opened up about her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and the anxiety issues that have plagued her since she was a child. “I feel terrible for the younger me, because I thought I was crazy. Where was the fear coming from? It doesn’t make any sense,” she reveals in an interview with ELLE UK. “It becomes physical – I would get dizzy and cry and the lights are too bright.” But she has since channelled her OCD into a kind of healthy perfectionism.“I’m too measured and controlling about everything,” she tells InStyle US. “I don’t feel like I’m struggling with it. I think OCD is a part of me that protects me. It’s also the part of me that I use in my job, in a positive way.”
One place where her OCD can’t protect her? The theatre, where all you’ve got is one shot to deliver your best performance. “I’ve been dancing around the idea of being onstage for about five or six years and the only thing that’s been keeping me from it is timing and fear,” says Amanda. But the starlet doesn’t seem like one who’d let her fears get in the way of her dreams – this year, she finally makes her off-broadway debut in The Way We Get By.
PRIVATE PRACTICE
But while Amanda’s unusually candid about her insecurities and the seemingly unfavourable, and certainly less picture-perfect parts of herself, one thing she’s adamant about keeping private is the oft-overused Hollywood publicity tool: the actor’s love-life. After her high-profile relationship and split with actor Dominic Cooper, Amanda’s as private as it gets and has chosen to keep her relationship with Justin Long low-key. There are no staged pap photos, no Kimye-style coordinated outfits – just the occasional goofy Instagram picture.
Her aversion to the limelight also goes beyond the protective; while she’s certainly a style maven, Amanda isn’t the biggest fan of the obligatory red carpet appearance either, confessing to Vogue, “I don’t love the red carpet, because it’s loud and unnatural.” So why not just stay out of it? Because in spite of it all, her biggest fear is boredom. “I am most scared of being bored,” she tells W. “When I feel like I’m not accomplishing something, I feel like I failed the day.” And perhaps that explains why Amanda has been consistently churning out movies since Mean Girls in 2003. This year, she’ll release a mind-boggling seven movies, amongst them Ted 2 and Pan – a record for her.
So get ready, world – because unlike so many of Hollywood’s former teen stars who enjoy meteoric ascents then burn out before they can truly claim a permanent spot amongst the stars, the ever-surprising, constantly-evolving, and mega-talented Amanda Seyfried has taken her time to show us what she can do. And we suspect that she’s only just begun.
Someone Like You
We take a glimpse into Amanda’s life and hobbies, proving that stars are just as normal as the rest of us! (Or are they?)
#1 She has a taxidermy collection. Who wasn’t a collector of something at some point in time, right? Only, um, most of us probably weren’t into collecting these kinds of stuffed animals. Amanda reveals, “I love animals and they’re very easy to look after when they’re dead. I recently decided I was going to start building a parliament of owls.”
#2 She’s got a secret love for knitting. Whether she’s on set, lounging at home, or working out on the elliptical, Amanda’s got her hands busy making scarves, hats and other knitwear for her co-workers and friends. In fact, she even went to crochet class so she could learn how to make patches for her favourite, well-worn Alexander Wang cashmere pants.
#3 She’s got an untapped talent in songwriting. She’s not writing
any chart-topping hits anytime soon, but Amanda has sat for hours on
end with her guitar writing songs. As she told Interview, “I actually
wrote a song with Damien Rice for Dear John. He never finished it – I
mean, he might have, but he hasn’t sent it to me.”
#4 She’s one with her dog. We all have our fair share of best friends – plus points if they’re canine. If you follow Amanda on Instagram, you’ll see snapshots of Finn, her Australian Shepherd, wearing wigs and balancing cookies on his nose. Amanda even has a Twitter account for her dog (@finn_ seyfried)! Gotta love her kooky humour.
