Amanda Seyfried‘s career has been defined by range, but at 40, she says she is experiencing a shift in the kinds of opportunities coming her way.
After spending her earlier years building a diverse résumé in hopes of being taken seriously by the industry, Seyfried says filmmakers are now seeking her out for the complex characters she has long wanted to play.
“I feel like right now people are seeking me out to play these roles, which is just a real privilege,” Seyfried told PEOPLE during the Toronto International Film Festival. Her comments came as her latest film, “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” made its world premiere at TIFF on Sept. 13.
Amanda Seyfried’s Career Was Built to Be Taken Seriously
Seyfried said complexity has always been important when choosing roles. “I mean, I’ve always been looking for complexity and to get as much perspective as I possibly can as an artist,” she told PEOPLE.
Earlier in her career, that meant pursuing jobs that would help her develop what she described as a “diverse” repertoire and, in turn, allow her to be “taken seriously by the industry.”
Her résumé eventually demonstrated that range across comedy, musicals and drama. Seyfried broke through on the big screen as Karen Smith in 2004’s “Mean Girls” before starring in the 2008 musical “Mamma Mia!” She later took on dramatically different material in projects including “Les Misérables,” “Lovelace” and “First Reformed.”
Another major milestone came when Seyfried portrayed actress Marion Davies in David Fincher’s 2020 film “Mank.” The performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.
The varied résumé reflects the approach Seyfried now says she deliberately pursued earlier in her career. Today, however, she says the dynamic has changed: Instead of simply seeking complex material herself, people are approaching her to play those roles.
Seyfried Has Continued With Complex Roles
Seyfried’s dramatic work continued with Hulu’s “The Dropout,” in which she portrayed disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
The performance brought another major career milestone when Seyfried won her first Emmy in 2022 for outstanding lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie.
Rather than identifying one particular performance as the moment Hollywood’s perception of her changed, Seyfried’s latest comments point to the cumulative effect of building the diverse body of work she wanted from the beginning.
She also believes the kinds of opportunities available to women in Hollywood have evolved. According to PEOPLE, Seyfried said more roles are now spotlighting older women through increasingly nuanced stories.
That change has left her in a position where filmmakers are seeking her out for the kind of complicated characters she has long been interested in exploring.
A New Role Reflects Amanda Seyfried’s Career Evolution
“The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd” provides a current example of the kind of complexity Seyfried is talking about.
Written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson, the film stars Seyfried as Karen, a teacher working at a maximum-security prison who meets Wilson, an inmate played by Scoot McNairy.
According to the film’s synopsis cited by PEOPLE, Karen is trapped in an abusive marriage when Wilson’s charisma and tenderness begin breaking through the emotional defenses she has developed. Their connection eventually leads her to risk everything for the possibility of his freedom.
The film explores themes of crime, punishment, desperation, retribution and the unexpected ways isolated people can connect. It also places Seyfried in dramatically different territory from some of the roles that first introduced her to mainstream audiences.
Her next project will take her in another direction. Seyfried is set to star alongside Rachel Zegler in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s upcoming musical film “Octet,” an adaptation of Dave Malloy’s 2019 a cappella musical about members of an internet addiction support group.
Vogue reported that the ensemble also includes Jonathan Groff, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Phillipa Soo, Gaten Matarazzo, Tramell Tillman and Paul-Jordan Jansen. The project will mark Miranda’s second feature as a director following “Tick, Tick… Boom!”
For Seyfried, the variety between those projects fits neatly with what she says she has pursued throughout her career. The difference now is that after years of building that range, she says filmmakers are coming to her with the complex roles she once had to seek out herself.
