Amanda Seyfried may be a dancing queen now – thanks to her starring role as Sophie in the big-screen version of “Mamma Mia!” – but the show has been running on Broadway since Seyfried turned 13. And the Swedish rock band Abba, on whose songs the blockbuster stage musical was based, broke up three years before the 22-year-old actress was born.

“I didn’t know a thing,” Seyfried admits, speaking by cell telephone as she rides through Manhattan in a limousine. “Honestly, I didn’t know anything about Abba or ‘Mamma Mia!’ I know now that my dad was a fan, back when Abba was huge, but I really just knew some A-Teens tunes, when the A-Teens were big. They were this teen group that sang Abba songs, and I was probably 13.

“And I only found out about the show because of the audition for the movie.”

Seyfried, who grew up in Allentown, Pa., counts among her credits the soap operas “As the World Turns” (2000) and “All My Children” (2002-2003), guest shots or recurring roles on such television shows as “House” (2005), “Wildfire” (2006), “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (2006) and “Veronica Mars” (2004-2006), and the film “Alpha Dog” (2006). But the blond, blue-eyed beauty is best known for her turns as Karen, one of the mean girls in “Mean Girls” (2004), and as Sarah Henrickson, daughter of Utah polygamist Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton), on the controversial HBO series “Big Love.”

Truth be told, most of Seyfried’s successes could also be counted as failures: She appeared in “Veronica Mars,” for example, but only after losing the lead role to Kristen Bell. She made an indelible mark in “Mean Girls,” but had auditioned for the main role, which of course went to Lindsay Lohan.

As a result, Seyfried says, she was doubly thrilled to learn that she’d won the role of Sophie in “Mamma Mia!,” which is set to open Friday.

“I know that part of the reason they chose me was because Benny loved my voice,” Seyfried says, referring to Benny Andersson, a former Abba member who is also an executive producer of “Mamma Mia!” “It was just so amazing. I didn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it, and it’s just so weird to see my face on a taxicab or a billboard.

“It was so scary, actually,” the young actress says. “I was like, ‘Now people are relying on me to play this role.’ I hung up, after I found out from my agents that I’d gotten it, and I said, ‘Can I do this? Can I actually lead a movie?’

“I didn’t trust that they’d made the right decision,” she admits. “I knew in my heart that I was the right person for it, but in my mind I was like, ‘Can I perform at the level that Meryl (Streep) needs from a co-star?’ I just had to throw all that away when we started shooting. I was like, ‘That’s not going to get me anywhere. They chose me for a reason. I’m here, and I’ve got to do the best I can.’ ”

For those unfamiliar with “Mamma Mia!,” the story is set on the Greek island of Kalokairi, where former singer, single mom and currently overburdened hotel owner Donna (Streep) is preparing for the wedding of her radiant only child, Sophie, to the hunky Sky (Dominic Cooper). Donna welcomes her old bandmates, Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski), but unbeknownst to her Sophie has invited three men, namely Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth).

Sophie has deduced, from a surreptitious reading of Donna’s journal, that one of the three men is her father, and believes that she’ll realize which man is her dad the instant she meets him. Of course nothing goes quite according to plan for anyone, providing ample excuses for the characters to break into song – Abba chestnuts, to be precise, ranging from “Money, Money, Money” and “Dancing Queen” to “Chiquitita” and “Our Last Summer.”

“Sophie is so, so, so excited about life and she’s so adventurous,” Seyfried says enthusiastically. “Unfortunately that can get her in trouble, because she doesn’t really understand the consequences sometimes of being so positive. That’s very like me. I like her because I can relate to her.

“But also Sophie is young and she loves life,” the actress continues, “and, when this situation happens, she deals with it as realistically and hopefully as she can. I was so happy to play her. I’m used to playing much darker roles, and she was just such a lovable person.”

Director Phyllida Lloyd, who also had staged the Broadway show, sought to capture the same spirit in the film, Seyfried says. That meant taking advantage of the film’s star power, and the opportunity to shoot on sound stages in London and on location on several Greek islands, without losing sight of the material’s kitschy nature.

“It is pretty campy,” Seyfried says, “and that’s part of the reason it’s so special. And you can still relate to all of the characters. I think they made it even better, because we’re able to see everything in three dimensions. You can see the beauty of this island, but you’re also seeing everything through the eyes of the characters in the movie and you can become more a part of these people’s lives.

“You can see every nuance, as opposed to just what you can see from 50 feet back in a theater,” she says. “It’s more intense, I guess. I think they did a great job of not changing too much from the play, because people love the play.”

Sophie interacts with every major character, so Seyfried shared quality time with the entire “Mamma Mia!” company. It was a rare treat, she says.

“I got to know Dominic best during the shoot, because we’re peers, and we became great friends,” Seyfried says. “Stellan and I actually worked together again after this movie, and he’s such a good, well-rounded person. Meryl is an incredible human being.

“Stellan, Colin and Pierce are all fathers and such real people,” she says. “They’re all different for different reasons, and I got close to them in different ways. It was all very comfortable and satisfying.”

Seyfried will next be seen in “Boogie Woogie,” a British black comedy set in the art world, which co-stars Gillian Anderson, Alan Cumming, Heather Graham, Christopher Lee and Skarsgard. She’s also completed work on “Jennifer’s Body,” an upcoming horror/comedy written by “Juno” (2007) scribe Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, best known for “Girlfight” (2000).

“I’ve gotten to play a lot of different roles already,” Seyfried says, “and I have not played the same part too many times. Every time I come into a role, it’s so fresh, and that’s why I choose it.

“Most of these roles,” she continues, “people have chosen me. I’m just like, ‘Take me, please!,’ because I’ve been desperate to keep working. I’m getting all these great opportunities now, and I’m just blown away. I can’t believe the way things are going.

“And I think I can handle whatever comes with it,” Seyfried adds. “I know what gets you more in the public eye, and I know what you can do to not be in it. I also know a lot of people that are very famous who actually deal with it very well, and they’re pretty sane. I’m taking tips from them, and I feel like I might be OK.

“I have a good family keeping their eye on me and I have good friends,” she says. “I know that’s what you need, and I know that you’ve got to stay away from drugs. So, as long as I do that, I think I’ll be all right.”

The young actress hesitates for a moment, then continues.

“I have some ideas of how I’ll deal with it,” Seyfried says, “but you never know until you’re in it yourself.”

Source: ReadingEagle.com