Amanda Seyfried stops by Dodge College
Photo Courtesy of Matt Harbicht
Amanda Seyfried lived in her own apartment at age 17 and missed about 80 days of her last year of high school working her butt off in acting work. Only three months after graduation would she audition for the role of Karen in the 2004 comedy “Mean Girls.”
Even before “Mean Girls,” she found herself considering acting as a serious career and wanted to push herself to do better in the craft when she was 15.
“I had a drive, and I still do,” Seyfried said. “I gotta get this energy out. (Acting) is the way I’ve found it works best.”
On Wednesday, April 2, Seyfried walked onto the Folino Theater stage to a plethora of cheers from audience members waiting to see her live Master Class, of which The Panther attended.
“This is so crazy,” Seyfried said upon sitting down in front of the audience. “I feel so warmly welcomed.”
She was correct in that statement, as students lined both sides of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts Marion Knott Studios building in order to see Seyfried’s live interview with trustee professor Scott Feinberg as part of the latter’s Awards Chatter podcast. In her interview, Seyfried brought a lot of comedy and some behind-the-scenes stories to a career retrospective spanning over two decades.
From Allentown, Pennsylvania, Seyfried found her start in acting from modeling. Self-described as “full of energy,” she channeled it into other activities in her youth — like playing musical instruments and singing.
“I just wanted to perform. I was doing these little one-person plays in my living room and making people watch me do things,” she said. “I needed some kind of attention, and I needed some kind of output…”
While Seyfried didn’t get the role she originally went for in “Mean Girls” — the leader of The Plastics clique, Regina George (eventually played by Rachel McAdams) — she ended up playing one of The Plastics’ members, Karen.
Seyfried didn’t have any expectations for the project during filming; she was just happy to be on set. When the film became a hit after its release, she found herself encountering young fans who recognized her and thought things she said in the film as Karen were true.
“That’s my number one job, is to get people to believe what I’m saying is true, bottom line,” she said. “I still feel like I can do that.”
A few years later, the ABBA jukebox musical “Mamma Mia!” offered her her first leading role. At the name-drop of the film, the theater cheered again.
“I can’t believe I got that role,” Seyfried said. “You know what they kept saying? (“Mamma Mia!” director) Phyllida Lloyd would keep saying, ‘Your face. You were just so in love.’ And she was right. I was so in love with the music and the possibility and I had seen the show with my boyfriend at the time in Vegas, and I was just on my feet. It just made you happy.”
She continued: “I kept coming back and back; there’s just so many auditions for certain things… The process really nailed in how life-changing it would be, and I would’ve been devastated. My expectations were low, but I still put so much work into it; it felt like it was something that I should be doing and could be doing.”
For the role, Seyfried had to start singing again after a five-year hiatus.
“It was the moment. I remember getting the call and just being like, ‘This is it,’” she said. “My life is changing. Meryl Streep is going to be working as my mother. That was the moment.”
Two years later, she starred in Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe” — a conscious effort to break into a new type of role.
“I was like, ‘Oh. This is an opportunity that, if I don’t take, I might continue to be pigeonholed as the young, in love romantic lead.’ Which, by the way, that’s great. It’s great,” she said. “But challenges are our friends. I deliberately took that role because Atom Egoyan’s a genius and because it was going to put me in a completely different category in the industry.”
Seyfried was later in talks of taking on a role in one of Marvel’s biggest franchises. At one point, Seyfried met with director James Gunn about portraying the character Gamora in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a role eventually played by Zoe Saldaña. She partly declined because of anxieties about the “Guardians” property — anxieties that didn’t exactly prove to be justified after the film’s release.
“I was like, ‘I should take this, right? But this is gonna be Marvel’s first bomb and I do not want to be ruined for the rest of my life. Who is gonna see a movie with a talking raccoon and a talking tree?’...” she said. “And I knew that Jennifer Lawrence had a really hard time in the makeup chair day-in and day-out with that blue stuff for ‘X-Men.’ We all knew about it. We all knew how hard it is and how soul-destroying it is to spend so much time getting into character and then having three hours to fly.”
She continued: “I did not want that to be my life and I didn’t want to live in London for six months and I didn’t want to be a part of a multi-picture deal. I was like, ‘This is very risky. Chris (Pratt) and I are gonna go down in flames.’”
Her career, though, isn’t without its share of box-office hits. “Mean Girls” is among them, as are the historical musical “Les Misérables” and the Western comedy “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”
In 2017, she starred in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed,” playing a pregnant character when she herself was 33 weeks pregnant.
“There was something so special about that for me and for Paul and for Ethan (Hawke), everybody really, because my daughter was in it,” Seyfried said. “I wasn’t wearing a pregnancy suit, which I do often. Life was happening, and so it was so real and sacred, almost. What was coming from me as a pregnant, grieving widow, it kind of grounded the whole experience more.”
Seyfried has also worked with David Fincher, with whom Seyfried worked on the biographical drama “Mank” and developed a friendship. Fincher is a great person yet terrifying on set, according to Seyfried, who also noted his professionalism. The acclaimed filmmaker is additionally known for his high volume of takes in order to capture a scene.
“There’s a famous quote that (Fincher) didn’t like the way someone picked up a phone in some movie, and it’s that,” she said. “The take has to be all the things in one. He can pull, pick and choose from different takes for sure. He’s got more than anybody else in the editing room. But he wants to see it all happen in that one take, and that is called ‘magic,’ and he knows he can get the magic, so he works until he gets the magic. That’s from my point of view.”
She continued: “I think that’s a beautiful way of working, and he chooses the people he thinks are right for the character, and if they don’t bring it, they don’t bring it, and that’s sad for them. But you want to bring it. He makes that generator just go wild in me, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would know that I wouldn’t always have the best time doing it, because there’s a lot of self-loathing in the process, but that helps sometimes. I always say my anxiety helps me. Even though I hate it, it moves something in me in the right direction.”
In her latest series, “Long Bright River,” Seyfried plays a Philadelphia police officer investigating the disappearance of her sister. While acknowledging bad and corrupt individuals in police forces, Seyfried also explained the awe she feels towards those who put on the uniform and face extremely dangerous situations every day.
“I know we have a really, really tense relationship with cops, but in this show, we are clearly spotlighting the bad fuckers, the people who are corrupt, and using their authority and their power for no good, and then you see the people who are desperately trying to protect and support and look after the community, civilians, anybody, everybody,” she said. “That’s just the way it is in every organization. I love that about it…”
Dodge College of Film and Media Arts Master Classes are available to all Chapman students and alumni. Seats are available either on a first-come, first-served basis or by lottery system, depending on the Master Class. Dates, times, upcoming guests and additional information can be found in the lobby of Marion Knott Studios or on the Dodge College Instagram account.
