Amanda Seyfried: Balancing Farm Life & Hollywood | The Run-Through with Vogue

Welcome, Amanda. Welcome, ladies. We are so excited that you're here. And I really it was this kind of exciting, creeping thing in our office of people seeing this movie. And then other people who hadn't seen it yet working on the photo shoot and the treatment of it being like, can I go to screening? Can you send me the screening link? It really became this sort of a sleeper club. Yeah, that's because I wanted to be part of. We did do the shoot before it came out. Yeah. Yeah. The shoot was right before Thanksgiving, I think. So it was. Yeah, it was a month before it came out. Feels like just yesterday with Eddie Ray. Oh, I know. I love that shoot. I think it was really so beautiful. I love the fashion Jordan picked. Oh, my God. She's great. And the sun and the winter. I know landscape was. I mean, that's I don't I don't think you needed to Photoshop anything in the background. Didn't seem like it. You might have gotten rid of a cow. But yeah, we heard about the cow errant cow that you insisted. Swear there's a cow. Amanda, I want to hear about your whiplash traveled. When did you get back from the Globes? I got back last night. OK, we're speaking to Amanda on Tuesday morning. I'm very impressed that you are here looking very fresh. You know, I loved your Globes look. This was a dress that took 400 hours to make. I was surprised by that. It was. Love to see it. I love. I just also like I couldn't. I have to give respect to the ateliers and like what ateliers. There you go. I have to give. What? The seamstress who folded all that silk. It was it's it's too much. And it looked like perfection. It was the it was my favorite look. I loved it was for me it was sort of giving mank. I loved it. It's very old. I very old Hollywood. I was a big man. I love that movie. Thank you. So what is the plan for the rest of award season dressing? How do you and Elizabeth Elizabeth Stewart, your stylist? How do you map that out together? I think we have we have some really great relationships with different fashion houses and we have our favorites. And and I think it's just a conversation between them and her at first without me without me involved at all. And then she'll come to me with who's interested in dressing me. And we we've been wearing a lot of Prada and we decided to to wear Versace, which is always trusted and beautiful and classic as well. And and so for for the award, some of them were just going to be Versace and then the rest is like Prada Miu Miu. I love Sarah Burton's Givenchy. I would love to. I'd love to wear one of those. I used to wear Givenchy all the time with Ricardo. Yeah, there's just I don't know, they have a lot of conversations. Tiffany, they are just spraying me in diamonds every every opportunity I get. And that's been really fun because some of them are archival pieces, which is incredible. And I want to do a story on like all the security guards from the jewelry houses who have to be sort of lurking at the award shows. There's a lot of high carrots. Oh, God. I you know, I always I have this one or two girls who come in and grab it from me, but I don't have security following me at events, which is funny because because you know, it's a lot to be wearing. I did ask them once at Tiffany for the Academy Museum Gala. I was like, why aren't we wearing fake versions of what you're selling? Yeah. Just for relief of stress. They got extra anxiety for everybody, including the wearer. And she's like, it's just not how we do it. It's not ethical. And I'm like, OK, well, yeah, I mean, plenty of art collectors now. That's a whole thing of having fake paintings hanging in your house and then having the real ones in a vault. It's a bit weird, but it's the idea. I mean, you do have it. But I remember someone the other night, this cutie actress was like, oh, my ring fell, my ring fell off my glove. And then all of a sudden everybody was like, got their phones out. And it was it was like it was an emergency event immediately. Oh, thank God. Immediately, because I know she would have imploded. I know that feeling of like checking the ears all the time. But one night I actually got home. I think it was after the Academy Museum Gala. And I got back to my I stay with my friend Peter in L.A. And we were at the bottom of the driveway. It was raining. My driver and the driver of the necklace who was coming to pick up. He wasn't a guard. He was just he worked for the company to retrieve the necklace. So it with the flashlight in the middle of the night, my driver and this other guy were trying to take off this. Oh, they had to do the exchange. And they couldn't get it. So I had to FaceTime Jordan, Elizabeth's assistant to tell them how to do it. Wow. And then so I was on FaceTime. The the the driver of the of the pickup was had his, you know, phone's flashlight on. And my driver was his hands were trying to on a job description. Not again. I will never do this again. And the next day I was wearing a gorgeous new piece from the blue book. I was also obsessed when you and Julia Roberts wore the Versace jeans look at Venice back to back. Credit me. I credit you. Credit me. Was that a good idea? Was that your idea? It was my idea. But, you know, Julia has been working with Elizabeth Stewart forever. And and you should just look hot. And I was like, is it still there? She's still there. It must still be there. And it was like, oh, my God, she loves it. It was a great idea. And it's so rare that people actually have fun with what they're doing. We should be recycling these things. We should be recycling them a lot more incredible looks. By incredibly talented artists in fashion. I want to know if there was anything that we didn't see at the Golden Globes that was exciting. Is there any fun moment? I feel like there if it wasn't on cable or network cameras, it was on selfie videos. And you can't get away from that. I do wonder what it was like back in the 90s, in the early aughts, when people didn't have cell phones and in video cameras, because like I was having a conversation with somebody and it was on it was on and it was all over Instagram. And I'm just like, they're reading your life. Is that ethical? But there was it was it was right there. Somebody was right there. And I was just like, why? How how are we not allowed to go to certain Broadway shows and bring our phones in? Yeah. And how are we at the Golden Globes? And do we just not have in-depth conversations or like are we always should we be afraid of our privacy or is it for the taking? And and then it's like that's kind of a bigger question. Like being a celebrity, you know, I do understand the lack of privacy and I respect the fact that I gave it away. But there are still moments when I when I forget. Yeah. That people are watching. And it and it did it was a little bit like unnerving when I saw that because I just believed, I guess, stupidly, that it was it was a private conversation. Yeah. Who were you having a conversation with? Jennifer Lawrence. And so I will say my favorite part of the party was being at the A24 party at the Chateau. There were all the parties were there. Most of the parties were there. And I was just on the couch with a bunch of people that I like and don't ever see except at award shows. Yes. Or or fashion events. I also it was a big topic in our office, how delighted we were by your comment on Timothée's Instagram about him thanking Kylie for the foundation, because we all in our chat were like, does he have a charitable foundation? When he said that. And I do. It was a very we felt very validated by you. So sorry. Clarifying things. Clarifying. I swear I know now that when I comment on Evan Ross Katz's Instagram, which I kind of can't help but do often because I live for him or his memes. And and now I know that he's in a spot like them, which is fine. But also, I think I just I shouldn't have said it out loud, but it was funny to me because that's that's first what I thought, because I didn't see her there. Yeah, I know. And then I saw her and I was like, oh, that's really sweet. He's talking about her. But then I just thought it was funny to, like, recap in the text. I don't know. Yeah, I'm glad that we were all thinking that because a lot of people did text me. They're like, oh, my God. Yes. We all were like, oh, what's his foundation for? But you know what? This is his sign to start a foundation. Yeah. So true. Yeah. I don't care who it's for. I mean, make it about kids, I guess. You know what? I'm not going to tell him what to do. He's a smart guy. Ping pong foundation. Yeah, totally. For kids. I'm kidding. You do you, Timothy. Ping pong for kids. Yeah, exactly. We should take a moment to congratulate you on the Vogue cover. We already said. But you're it was photographed by Eddie Ray. You're wearing Valentino, an amazing dress. The shoot took place upstate. And I think one of the things we all resonated to was just like the juxtaposition of these super glamorous dresses with that like pastoral landscape that you talked about. But we did want to hear you have a farm upstate. What are you normally wearing in the farm around the house? Around the house, usually I if I'm feeding in the morning the night before, I'll just put on like thicker sweatpants to sleep in because I know that I'm not going to want to change when I wake up. What time is feeding? And who are you? Nine, nine, 30. I'm not. We're not an early rise. OK. Riser Farm. When I'm feeding, I go out, do the I open up the chickens and the peacocks first. And I'm always wearing those big toe even in the summer. I'll wear the big, tall muck boots, the ones you can't drive a car in because your foot can't reach the pedal. But that's just in the in the summertime. You're working with a lot of water all the time. And and in the winter, you're kind of less like you're cut more covered. So I don't like to get my legs and my sweatpants wet. So I'm always wearing the high boots, even if they're hot. I do the chickens and the peacocks. I feed the ducks at the pond. I walk across. I go. I get the gator first. I feed the little miniature ponies to the right. And sometimes during the summer, the donkey and the pony are with them in the winter. They're in another pasture because of ice and mud and thaw. And then I'll go I'll do the open up the bunny. I'll put the hay near the goats. I'll go around to the front. I'll feed all the big horses on the different paddocks. There's three of them, four of them. And then I'll feed the other many, many ponies. And then I'll go in the barn and I'll and I'll, you know, do the cats. And then I will go into the back and then open up, fully open up the goats and then reset. And that's basically how and there's ducks in the back as well. This is now up to 90 minutes because of all the extra and like the the bunny doesn't take up a lot of time, but it takes up a lot of space. And what does that mean? He needs a lot of space, like physical space. The bunny needs. Yeah. And it's like holding space, like emotional space. I have not been able to connect emotionally to that bunny yet. OK, what's his name? He's a rescue. His name's Bugsy. OK, he's could be he could be 37 years old. I have absolutely no idea. His his eyes. He's a droopy, wet eye, but he's very nice, it seems. But like, you know, he needs to eat fresh veggies and stuff like just like nobody else needs cats and eat their cat food. They're those cats are definitely 37. I don't think they're ever going to perish. What's the total animal count right now? Fifty two. Wow. Recently. Yeah. Do you feed with anyone? I have a caretaker who runs the farm because I'm not there so often. The kids will sometimes when you're always audiobooks. What's your audiobook of the moment right now? Now it's all different. If the dead belong, here's what I'm doing. And I recently added a marriage at sea. Oh, that's so good. The book Sleep by Honor Jones. I just ate up and the heart's invisible theories by John Boyne was a long one. And he's like Franz and Timmy. Wow. I know that's crazy because Jonathan Branson really is my favorite author. But I'm really, really into John Boyne. I read The Echo Chamber or listened to The Echo Chamber, which I devoured and sleep love is a burning thing by Nina St. Pierre. And I just I eat them up. Did you use audiobooks to go about learning about Emily? Did you know anything about her before you began this process of now making the film? I. It's funny, like the testament of Emily used to be called the woman clothed by the sun with the moon at her feet. Oh, my God. And and as I think as Mona was was exploring what she had already in the in post, it became clear that because there was a narrator and this was a testament of her life, a very specific portrayal, specific like specifically designed fable by Mona herself, it was it was less about trying to reach her and approach her from the same way or approach everything else, but more and just taking everything that that was folded into her story that was made up and designed based on testaments. I just had to believe really happened because I have to fall in love with this person. I have to back myself up. And now that's a bad way of saying it, too. God, it's too early. But but I did I did have much less access to Emily's life, obviously, because she lived 250 years ago and and I think it was such a playful perspective that Mona wrote with and also a very graphic and and and human perspective as well at times. And to balance that was just following Mona's lead. But I did all the actually the other work that's like the technical accent, which was the hardest thing. And I still don't think I can do it very well. And the dancing, the movement, that it's so completely alien to me at first. Now it's just a part of me. And the this the singing from like a human place, like finding more of a human groundedness to my voice, which I never had to do before. I was never asked to do, but I think would have been appreciated on all my other musicals. Yeah, I think the whole point of the shakers worship through song and dance. So it was never not not going to be a musical. But in that knowledge of how, you know, how movement shaped, shaped how their devotion and their faith and how cleansing it was for them of their sins. It had to be second nature. And the singing had to be second nature. And the only way to do that to really allow yourself to be free in that is to let go of the judgment that you have of your voice or of anything that you're doing, which is putting the ego aside to act. You know, you can't just you can't judge what you're doing when you're doing because then you're not present. But with singing, I've always been judging myself as I've been doing it. So even in Les Mis, I wasn't present the way I was. Yeah. So I had to let go of that very early on. And the key to that was she is human and I need to feel it. It's not about how it sounds. It's about how it feels. And I need the audience to become a shaker for two and a half hours. I feel like I became a shaker for two and a half hours. And I was riveted by the childbirth scenes. And I was incensed by the many men who left the theater when it showed in Venice. I didn't ever hear about that. I thought that was really one of the most moving parts of the film for me. And that's the thing about Mona is that she's fearless in her endeavor to make any movie, anything that she puts her mind to. She kind of just she just has the will to climb through the mess of people saying no. But she also is like, well, if I'm making this, I'm going to make it as realistic looking as possible. And the thing that she really irks her about movies and portrayals of that event to be like cleansed in a way that just isn't it doesn't take you there and it doesn't make people understand the true nature of being a woman in, you know, in childbirth and delivery. And it's just like it's like life altering chemically, everything emotionally, physically could change your body. You know, my my son's my delivery of my son was an actual nightmare. And I'm lucky that I didn't have to go through surgery. But but my spine was was was was affected in a way that shouldn't have been. Yeah. And and it's traumatizing, tries to traumatizing. I knew immediately after he shuffled out, the anesthesiologist was like, hey, so listen, the needle punctured the spine. Because I was I wasn't the anesthesiologist didn't get there until. A little too late, and I couldn't have had him without the relaxation of my I mean, he was he was stuck in my head and he's like, I just want to puncture. So you're going to feel numb up to your, you know, above your chest. And I was like, oh, I can't feel my boobs. This is amazing because I was so happy. I was so happy that he was out and all the everything that was happening was just because the epidural had worked too well. And he's like, so I'm going to have to put a blood patch in your spine. And so it's a little procedure. It'll be fine. We'll do it. You know, when you wake up later and after you fed a little bit, it's just like, great. Yeah. I'm done ever giving birth again. I was just so thrilled. And then I woke up again later to the realities of having a puncture in your spine. That's crazy. I mean, I had a similar thing where I had to have an emergency C-section. So they gave me ketamine and I was so happy on this ketamine. I was like in heaven. And then two hours later, I woke up. I was like, this is a horrible. Yeah. I can't imagine waking up and recalling that extra extra trauma, because if you try to deliver it and yeah, it really is. It is. It is so much more traumatizing than people realize if they haven't been in the room or have done it themselves. And Mona is like, no, we're showing this. We're going to get the prosthetic. We're going to get the blood. We're going to get the expensive babies, which are the the ones that jiggle. Wow. That's an interesting distinction. Ten thousand dollars for that. Wow. Yeah. A lifelike robot baby. Very, very, very. Where is this baby now? Like, do you keep them after? No, we give them back. Wow. Yeah. It's they're they're very expensive and we only had ten million dollars to make this like epic tale. Wow. So we just did what we could and we had incredible actors who were able to portray something that they had never been a part of. And that's what we do when we're acting. We're portraying things that we've only imagined half the time. So for me, it was just like I just could get there sooner, faster with everybody. And it was beautiful communion of like this represent representation of what we go through in like as humans. And it's true that you rarely see it portrayed like that. I mean, unless it's like the pit. Exactly. I do. I think the only other birth scene that I've seen is pieces of a woman. I think that feels real. I didn't see it in part because people kind of warned me off of it. Yeah. So dramatic. I think when you're pregnant, it's worse. Like there are certain movies this year that I just know I need to see. And I can't bring myself to see them because they deal with. Yeah, they do. That deals with something that I do not need to be reminded of right now. Yeah. However, it makes us more human just to create stories like that. I'm just in awe of I mean, Jesse's the one of the our best actors, but also just that they're doing. I love that story. I just there's a lot of movies like that right now. And the childbirth scene is included in that if you're. And but I also think it was so important also to remember that we're not just showing what it's like, we're also honoring new women and men and lose their children during and shortly after childbirth, too, because that is that is a whole other level of grief. Yeah. And that's what and that's what shaped and Lee. Yeah. So there are many reasons to show it. But in general, if we're going to go there, we need to go there. Yeah. I thought it was such a feminist film in that way, not in terms of like any political attachment of the word, but just in terms of like really showing the effect that such a loss could have on a woman. Like, yeah, it could galvanize her to start a new religion because it's so dramatic. So I thought it was like one of the more moving elements of the film. And you need to earn that kind of levity she has. Yeah. When she finds her purpose again and to mother everyone. But it's just it's important. So when you get to the end, you feel you feel that you've gone with her. Yeah. I want to know about onset in Budapest because it sounds like it was speaking of this extremely maternal sororal environment that almost feels like it could only have been created by someone like Mona, who is that open and inclusive. I think inclusive is a great, great word to describe it. The lack of hierarchy on that set was, you know, reflected not only how Mona and I like to work in general, leading a show, but also how Annie designed the Shaker community. It's like equality for all doesn't matter your gender or your race in the 18th century was completely radical. And and obviously we know this is this this does work. It does a community working together and caring for each other. And, you know, desiring connection like that is what makes us be able to create good things. The whole set felt like a family. Everybody understood why they were there. Everybody understood that they were getting paid minimum and everybody was there because they believed in Mona's portrayal of Annie and the story that needed to be told, like it was just a bunch of grownups and and empaths kind of hanging out. Grownups and empaths. I love that. It was. Yeah. And lots and lots of animals. Yes. And Finn did travel to Europe. I feel like that's a children's book I would like to read. You don't want. It's a it's a really ridiculous. I took a private jet if you really want to know. Well, I'm happy. I'm happy for Finn. He deserves that. It was more about his frozen meat. Oh, my gosh. Say more. You guys need to explain who Finn is first. Sorry. Everyone knows Finn. I legendary. I have I have really marketed my dog from day one pretty well, I think. But he speaks for himself. He markets himself. He is my 16 and a half year old dog. So when we shot the movie, he was 15 and he is a great traveler. He's always traveled with me. Wow. Since since birth. And I couldn't couldn't see myself being away for six weeks without him, including my family, because he's included in that. And so we we had to hire I had to I had to pay for a private jet, which is not in my best interest financially. But it was in his best interest and my emotional best interest because I needed him there. And so did the family. So we we we traveled him on a private jet with his 80 pounds of frozen dog meat. Wow. Dog food. And what kind of is it? It's venison. Eighty pounds of frozen dog food. Just food for dogs makes a venison squash diet. And he can't his diet cannot change at this age. We cannot afford some experiment stomach issue diarrhea. And so we brought his beef so we didn't have any issues with that. We you know, traveling a dog commercially is very difficult, especially overseas. And I couldn't get the right paperwork. And so I was I just bit the bullet. And then I spent the year, you know, working for that jet. I also want to know about Mona showing your daughter Mean Girls for the first time. Did you was it? It wasn't. Sorry, not Mona. Mona's daughter. It was Mona's daughter. How old is his daughter? She's 11 now. But we went to Zurich a couple of months ago as like for like a mother daughter trip because Mona and I had to premiere the film at the Zurich Film Festival. And so we'd never been to Zurich. So we all went, the four of us. And we had a meeting with Searchlight on Zoom. So the girls sat on the bed, the opposite side of the room. And Ada asked if she could show Nina Mean Girls. And I was like, it's not really sure. And and she did. And they watched half of it because it got too late. And and then she said that she didn't think it was that funny, but she really loved my role. That was Nina's critique of Mean Girls at age eight. So it'll be a while before they watch The Housemaid. That's for sure. Ada saw The Housemaid. Did she really? Wow. And she loved it. What was her review? She loved it. Like everyone who's seen it. Very, very excited about it. And she didn't think that the tooth part was as scary as it was for me and for most people. She doesn't she hasn't gotten to the age where she dreams about her teeth falling out, maybe. Maybe that's what it is. That is a persistent nightmare for a lot of people. Oh, I want to ask about turning 40. Oh, yeah. Happy birthday. That was a part of Claire's story. I know. Loved all the details of party planning. Was your mom surprised by your sister surprising her? My mom? Yes. It was so out of left field for her, which is great to be able to really surprise somebody. It's hard. And I didn't forget that I hadn't told her. So no one had ruined the surprise. My sister woke up because she'd gotten there late. My sister woke up the next day, meaning she'd gotten there late. So she stayed in the barn. So my mom wouldn't see her. She we Halloween decorations take a time to put away. So we still had some, like I said, remnants of the party. And there was a cow hat. So she walked to the house. I walked with her and she walked through the house and my girlfriend was still there who came up to celebrate with me. And she videoed the whole thing. And I'm walking into the kitchen. My mom's watching some kind of video on her phone about like birds and like on Instagram. And and my sister walks in with the cow head. She goes, move. And even though Jennifer was in the room as well, my mom thought that maybe the cow was Jennifer. Is Jennifer your sister? No, Jennifer's my best friend. OK. And Jenny's my sister. They're both Jennifer. And she takes off the cow head. And my mom's just like and and my sister goes, what's wrong with you? My mom's like, I just I'm so surprised. And I thought for a second she was having a stroke because there was just she was lifeless for a second. And it was scary. I mean, it can be very I fainted when my mom threw me a seven year old surprise. I fainted during my 13th. Yes. It's crazy. She it was like a surprise party at a haircutting place in L.A. temporary. And Tipper. Yes. And I walked in and everyone jumped out and I just like collapsed like a tree. And everyone was like, oh, no. Shock is shock. Yes, exactly. That is so I know. My God, your mom must have been so scared. She was mortified. Oh, no. I did. I bounced back. I got my hair crimped. I got the whole thing. Oh, nice. I bet everybody was crimping. That's what we did. Yeah. God, that is so funny. Birthday party that you can answer that. It was a surprise party. My only surprise party I ever had because I hate surprises and it was in my friend's basement. And I remember wearing a really ugly maroon polo shirt. Ralph Lauren. It was a boys. I was going through that. It was the late 90s. God, though, it was so because my crush was there and it was after I came like came back around. I was very happy. And, you know, we weren't drinking at that point in our lives. So it was just as you as you know, run of the mill sober party. But my 40th was at a roller rink and that was just that was so exciting. And I played a lot of Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, a lot of Taylor Swift and Serena Carpenter and Britney. You are a big Swiftie. Yeah, I'm a very, very large fan. What is your go to Swiftie song? When I was surprised with the I did something bad at the end of The Housemaid, my friend Kendra and I screamed because we were watching we watched it with a bunch of my publicists were there like friends. We all squealed because we didn't know and we didn't know if we were going to be able to lock it in because it was not a final cut. And so I called Lionsgate. I was like, this has to be in it. If it is not in it, the movie will not be good. But now I'm I'm into reputation that I like I never was because you go through phases like I went I went through more red phases than anything. I love her new album, Life of a Showgirl. That song, Life of a Showgirl, is one of my favorite songs that she's ever done, she's ever made. And Midnight's is still probably my favorite all together. Well, I don't know. OK, it's hard. Thank you so much, Amanda. We love you for putting me. No, we were so happy. I'm by the way, it's my favorite shoot. It was beautiful. I love this shoot. I know you guys. I'm in so much trouble. No, sorry. Don't get in trouble. You're the best.