Amanda Seyfried is unwrapping a magic set she simply bought from Hamleys as I stroll right into a lodge room in London to interview her. She needs to share its delights with me. We’re talking a couple of days after her look on the 16th Governors Awards in Hollywood – she’s heat, welcoming and stuffed with animated spirit and humour as she tells me how excited she was to lastly meet Steven Spielberg. Seyfried is an actor who has balanced business hits with extra hard-edged indie works. There was her early look in Imply Womenadopted by Oh mama!which cemented her as one to look at. Her roles in Jennifer’s Physique and Lovelace revealed a riskier aspect, and he or she dazzled as Marion Davies in David Fincher’s Lack. And but her devoted and daring efficiency in The Testomony of Ann Lee is in contrast to something she’s ever accomplished earlier than.
LWLies: Are you able to pinpoint the precise second you tapped into the function of Ann Lee?
Seyfried: Actually tapping into the character truly got here earlier than we even began taking pictures. I was mendacity on the ground of the studio with Mona (Fastvold) and my canine, looking for the proper feeling to document ‘Stunning Treasures’. It’s a montage of three completely different occasions in Ann’s life. The primary is joyful and in love, the second is pregnant and ready and longing, and the third is grief. There are three completely different variations of the dance and the whole lot is combined collectively so I needed to document ‘Stunning Treasures’ many, many occasions after which sing it dwell. After I was within the studio, Mona was saying, ‘Let’s do it once more however now simply cry by means of it, simply whisper by means of it…’ it was relentless. By the point I acquired on set I’d acquired it and that was liberating. Earlier than you get to that time it’s exhausting, however that’s okay, that’s why it’s so particular.
There’s an orgasmic and primal feeling to the dance sequences. What have been the conversations you had with choreographer Celia Rowlson-Corridor?
I used to be clueless as to what this film would appear to be once I was studying the script and what the hymns would truly sound like. The script may be very unconventional, in the perfect, most stunning approach. Not with the ability to wrap your head round one thing early on is regular however it’s scary since you suppose, ‘Am I the proper individual for this if even I can’t see this?’ I began working with Celia within the winter. We have been taking pictures within the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts in the course of a snowstorm. I am not a dancer. It takes a very long time for my mind and physique to hook up with create muscle reminiscence. What I understood was that it was in all probability going to turn into intuitive however I wanted to maintain dancing. I would see movies of Celia and I understood it to be actually summary and really feral. It’s virtually simply an extension of emotion. For this movie I needed to present my soul in a approach I haven’t actually been conversant in earlier than.
You have been final in London in October, if you carried out in London’s Café Oto with Daniel Blumberg…
I’ve by no means had a possibility like that earlier than. I met him on Zoom a couple of weeks earlier than I met Celia. Though his rhythm will not be the identical as mine… it’s not the identical as anybody’s, in order that’s what makes him so distinctive. He doesn’t know music principle, he doesn’t know learn music. I come from a extra technical background. I began music once I was seven. I began enjoying piano, singing opera and enjoying guitar. It comes from some place else for him. It’s extra summary and from the pit of his soul, it’s virtually…
…guttural?
Sure! And a lot of music is, however he’s unafraid on the subject of music. These songs usually are not straightforward to sing. They don’t sound good on a regular basis. They’re arduous to sing if you’re transferring. I don’t have sufficient breath for sure phrases. I couldn’t take heed to myself once I sang and that was difficult. The entire thing was undoubtedly a new understanding of what was wanted. The identical approach I should take my ego out of the equation once I’m appearing, I needed to take my ego out once I was listening to what I’m sounding like. I don’t belief my instrument the best way I belief Mona and Daniel. I should belief that they hear what they need to hear.
It feels like working with Daniel and on this movie modified you and your relationship with music.
It hasn’t actually modified my love for folks music. It opened me up extra to instrumental music. Enjoying at Café Oto was so heart-opening and so surreal as a result of, for the primary time, I simply sang. I wasn’t afraid. Normally I have a crippling concern of singing dwell and I was simply current there. I had a glass of wine, I was enjoying the bell and I was singing into the microphone. I wasn’t afraid of it for the primary time in my life. Really, I suppose you’re proper, this film has modified me.
It feels like a liberating expertise. You additionally needed to study the Manchester accent…
I stayed away from the up to date Manchester accent. Issues evolve over time so as a way to make it really feel much less up to date, our dialect coach, Tanera (Marshall), wished to dilute it a little bit. Peterloo was the film particularly that all of us watched and we used it as a bible. There are particular scenes that basically helped me discover my voice as an empowered girl. Maxine Peake in fact is from Manchester, and he or she is of this age, however I wanted a reference and I felt like Maxine was the most secure technique to go.
Peterloo is nice. I interviewed (its director) Mike Leigh not too long ago, I was terrified…
It’s a stunning film. With regards to administrators I’m all the time a bit intimidated. Administrators for me are all the time like ‘Mummy and Daddy’. Mona’s my mummy – on set we truly known as her (Amanda adopts a Manchester accent) ‘Mom Mona!’
We should always discuss your relationship with Mona since you beforehand labored together with her on (the 2023 TV sequence) The Crowded Room…
That was the primary time I labored together with her, however I already knew her. I met her in my early twenties. We’ve got many mutual mates in Brooklyn. She selected me as a result of she knew I would give it the whole lot. She knew that I would present up. She knew that it was a problem and he or she is aware of that I’m not a pussy! I’m not treasured in any respect and he or she is aware of I’m not going to offer her a arduous time. She has such a clear imaginative and prescient and he or she is aware of what she needs and he or she directs fantastically. She holds the room. She helps and nurtures the room however she additionally controls the room. There’s one thing very maternal about ‘Mom Mona’ however she asks for what she wants in a quite simple and direct approach.
There’s one level the place Ann is on the ship and he or she has irritated all people and he or she defiantly continues to bop and chant. It’s so humorous. Do you and Mona share a sense of humour?
Sure. She’s Scandinavian so she’s acquired a lot of manners and he or she’s very correct, however she may be fairly darkish and that’s a part of the explanation we get alongside so properly. After I introduce audiences to the film I wish to say that you simply shouldn’t be afraid to chuckle. It’s absurd at occasions, as a result of the Shaker faith is absurd. We’ve got a shared appreciation for the absurd, and the best way she navigates that and the best way she writes, you’ll be able to perceive that’s what she’s going for. She’s so humorous. We had a lot of enjoyable with it. There’s a lot of darkness and grief with this movie too. You gotta maintain either side of that and it’s very arduous to do.
I feel it very a lot does that… So, on a non secular degree did you’ve got any curiosity when it got here to faith?
I used to be with any person in my teenagers once I was dwelling in Hollywood and we began going to this Presbyterian church. We might go collectively and sing and I began considering I had this religion. I even began going to a Bible-study class as a result of I was new to city and wished to belong to one thing. Then it dawned on me a yr after we began going that I actually similar to to go to sing!
That’s what John Paul Jones, the bassist in Led Zeppelin, mentioned about his early roots in music. He wasn’t non secular, he simply went to church to play music.
You may have neighborhood and music at church and it’s free. Did I agree with the whole lot? Most of it. A lot of religions are very complicated to me. The idea of faith, I all the time thought, was to elevate one another up and be sort.
That’s what Ann Lee tried. In order that sense of euphoria, it appears you get {that a} lot from music, however if you join with a director, is that…
It’s the whole lot! I simply did a film with Tim Blake Nelson (The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd) and ‘euphoric’ is a excellent phrase to explain it. It’s an excessive amount of to explain every single day on set however I had moments of that. He made me perceive issues by means of this poetry in his path. It was scrumptious to take his observe and thread it by means of all my ideas and emotions. I’m actually an actor. I get such a kick out of it. It’s a stunning chaos. I keep in mind I was with Thomasin (McKenzie) and Mona watching the movie at Venice and we have been all holding palms. It felt like a sisterhood. I cried hysterically on the funeral scene, due to the end result of the entire expertise, in a movie a couple of girl whose complete existence was below the specter of erasure –this was a stunning individual, as nuts as she was. Her intention was extremely highly effective and pure for therefore many individuals.