It’s 3 p.m. on a gorgeous sunny day in Los Angeles, and Amanda Seyfried is sitting at an outdoor café, wearing a light-blue long-sleeve button-down and shorts, her signature glamorously wavy blond hair peeking out from a mustard-yellow cable-knit cap that she made herself. In a bag on the table is a DIY dog-collar kit for Finn, her blue-eyed Australian shepherd who lies lazily at her feet. The actress isn’t hiding under huge sunglasses, sitting in a dark corner, or ignoring the passersby who stop to pet her adorable pup. (In fact, she’s chatting them up, making it difficult for anyone to get a word in edgewise.)

Amanda is the rare young star who has managed to continue to thrive in Hollywood despite having no background in anything remotely Disney or Nickelodeon, and in case you haven’t noticed, she’s having a moment. In the past year, the 24-year-old actress from Allentown, Pennsylvania, has hit a movie genre trifecta—Dear John, a Nicholas Sparks tearjerker; Chloe, an indie thriller; and this month’s rom-com Letters to Juliet. And beyond the occasional red carpet and the Oscars, where she presented alongside Miley Cyrus, the paparazzi have generally left her alone. The closest they’ve gotten are a few snaps of the actress with beau (and Mamma Mia! costar) Dominic Cooper, although one guy was daring enough to follow Amanda and Finn on a recent six-mile hike.

“I don’t really care about paparazzi—like, I’m not wearing makeup right now and I should be—but when someone follows me around on a day like that, a really wonderful, beautiful day . . .” she trails off. “Had I known he was there, I would have been really upset.” Amanda’s going to have to get used to it.

A breakout role as Sophie in 2008′s Mamma Mia!, alongside Meryl Streep, launched the career of the actress, who got her start on daytime soaps As the World Turns and All My Children, but it was her big-screen debut as the ditzy Karen in Mean Girls that first made audiences take notice. “People still come up to me and say, ‘You were really funny in that,’ and I’m like, It’s not me. Tina Fey wrote everything I said!” she says, laughing. “I think I impressed a lot of people in Mean Girls. I don’t know how I pulled that off.”

Proving that her comedy chops weren’t just a fluke (or a gift from Tina Fey), Amanda shined as the nerdy Needy in last year’s Diablo Cody–written horror-com, Jennifer’s Body. Though it didn’t exactly blow up the box office, the film catapulted her into the spotlight. At the end of 2009, she announced that this past season of the HBO drama Big Love would be her last. And after Dear John made over $30 million in its opening weekend, Amanda moved from actress to star. Letters to Juliet is sure to make her a bona fide celebrity.

In it, Amanda plays Sophie, a young woman who travels to Verona, Italy, the home of fiction’s most well-known tragic couple, Romeo and Juliet. Sophie finds an unanswered love letter and chases down it’s owner, Claire (played by Vanessa Redgrave), in an attempt to make things right.

One would think that starring in two heartstring-tugging films in a year would turn even the most unemotional realist into a romantic. For Amanda, whose parents have been together for almost 30 years, that’s simply not the case. “It’s fun to play characters who have these ideals that you don’t have. Like, in Dear John, Channing [Tatum] and I had such a good time because we were pretending to be in love,” she says, but even though Letters to Juliet was “very romantically shot in a very romantic place,” it didn’t change her perspective. “A lot of people ask me, ‘Is Dominic the one?’ I don’t know, and I’m fine with that. Too much planning can lead to heartbreak. Love is great and possible, always, but it’s very rare to have the feeling that ‘I want to be with this person forever.’”

Lest we peg Amanda as a stone-cold cynic and revoke her membership in Hallmark’s card of the month club, she does melt a little when she talks about her past relationships. “I can’t remember if he said I love you first, or if I did,” she says of her first serious boyfriend, Micah Alberti from All My Children, at age seventeen. “But I do remember when my ex Jesse said it to me. It took my breath away.”

Her passion is most evident, though, when she talks about her craft, especially the process of deciding whether or not to sign on to a movie. For her next two films, Albert Nobbs and The Girl With the Red Riding Hood, Amanda fell head over heels for the directors (Rodrigo García and Twilight’s Catherine Hardwicke, respectively) and said yes to both projects almost immediately. This impulsive creativity might make life hard for her agent, whom Amanda has been with since day one, but it’s a good demonstration of the driving force that makes her performances so vibrant.

“I had no idea if I wanted to do Red Riding Hood, but I sat with Catherine for, like, two and a half hours that first day, and she was amazing,” Amanda remembers. “She is who should be a big Hollywood director, making cool-ass movies. She has such an imagination. I was like, OK, I’m doing it. Done.” And that was before Amanda had even read the script.

When she’s not filming, Amanda spends a lot of time at her piano, a gift from Letters to Juliet director Gary Winick, which has inspired the classically trained singer—who has written a song with Damien Rice and contributed songs to the Mamma Mia! and Dear John soundtracks— to return to her musical roots.

These days she’s listening to a lot of A.A. Bondy and Deer Tick.

After a chance meeting with singer/songwriter Joshua Radin at the Soho Hotel in London a few months ago, Amanda agreed to record a duet with him, but she has no intention of making this her full-time, or even part-time, career. “I love being the background voice,” she says. “But I’m not interested in being in the spotlight.” The actress, who lists Miu Miu, Stella McCartney, and Alexander Wang as some of her favorite designers, is equally as chill about her personal style, describing it as “comfortable and simple with a little edge.”

That’s pretty much Amanda’s M.O. There was some drama earlier this year when the blogs (falsely) reported that she was being difficult about committing to a Mamma Mia! sequel, holding out for more money, but in reality, she is as low maintenance as it gets. And she has a strict “no expectations” philosophy that keeps her grounded and has solidified her reputation as one of Hollywood’s most down-to-earth glamour girls: “I am successful now, and it’s wonderful. But the reason it is so wonderful is because I didn’t expect it to happen.”

Edited for teenvogue.com. For the complete story pick up the June/July 2010 issue of Teen Vogue, on newsstands May 25!

You hear about the pressure in Hollywood to be young and skinny. Do you feel that?
Hell yeah! From myself. When I see a scene in a movie where my belly sticks out, I’m like, that doesn’t look good, I’m not going to do that for the next movie. And then I never get there for the next movie; I still have a pudgy belly. The reality is, I look back and has my body every been that drastically different? No! So what are the chances of my having a six-pack for the next movie? Slim to non. So why live and breathe exercise when I know I’m just going to eat crap? Moderation is key. You can change your body to an extent, but if it’s taking all the time out of your day and taking up all your thoughts, what’s the point? The point is, it should be that important.

What’s the hardest diet you’ve ever tried?
A five-day raw food diet I’ll never do again. I go to this raw foods place everyday, and they do super-cleanses every month for 5 days. I was like, oh, I have to go on a press tour in six days, so I’ll try it! It’s really hard! I’d get really, really tired and hungry at three p.m. everyday because there was nothing to eat. Dinner would be cucumbers and kale and dressing. In the morning, you feel great, you’re doing a liver cleanse and eating raw oatmeal and blueberries and drinking great shakes. But at the end of the day, if you can’t have girl scout cookie and piece of cheese, what is life all about?

So do you just eat whatever you want now?
Yea, I want the raw stuff in the morning. I want the shot of chlorophyll or the ginger lemon drink or the asahi and hemp granola drink. But for lunch, I want a piece of pizza.

What do you do to work out?
Running a half hour four to five days a week keeps me alright–five days, because I feel guilty when I don’t. I also go to Harley Pasternak’s three times a week, and I love it. He’s fun and we do different things every time. It’s 45 minutes, and he kicks my ass! My legs are really strong, and I feel really great. And I go to my pilates teacher, Nikiko, on the weekends–she’s all about stretching and toning and being long and lean.

Did you work out like a maniac for your nude scene last year in Chloe?
No, I was running for a half hour on the treadmill every day but I didn’t have a trainer. I think people like to see a little bit of excess. I think women love that, and I don’t think men care. I feel better when I’m toned and not soft, but it’s hard to get rid of the soft parts. I’ve proven to myself it’s probably never going to go away, but I’m still trying to maintain.

You’ve had such a big year –do you feel like you’ve finally “arrived”?
I’ve been an up-and comer for so long that I do finally feel like I’ve established myself. I don’t quite know where yet, but I do feel like I’ve had enough under my belt for people to be able to trust me. I mean, I’m really insecure! I’ve always been. But at least I feel a little more confident now.

What are you insecure about? Your acting? Your looks?
Both. It’s very hard for me to watch a movie anymore with me in it. I used to not care. But recently I’ve been playing the romantic lead, and in order to be a romantic lead, you’ve kind of got to be pretty in my opinion. Clearly, some people think I can play the attractive girl. That is still a mystery to me. It’s a face thing–I pick apart my face. I guess we’re naturally inclined to want to change things about ourselves, and that gets heightened when I’m watching on a big screen. And it’s OK. Sometimes you wake up and you like it and sometimes you don’t. As comfortable as I am with myself day to day, watching it? It’s just strange.

How do you get over that insecurity?
If we’re so busy trying to change ourselves, especially aesthetically, we’re going to miss out on more important things. I used to live and eat and sleep by an exercise schedule, and I just couldn’t enjoy myself if I didn’t exercise. And then I realized, what a waste of time! Just praying I’d wake up a little fitter, a little more toned. It’s important in the grand scheme of things to keep in shape, but if you’re always worrying about imperfections and how you look, these things aren’t going to change for the most part. The thing you can change is the way you perceive.

What’s the best advice you’d give to a woman struggling to keep a positive body image?
I’d say, it’s not as bad as you think. You are your harshest critic. If you don’t like your body, you can do something about it. It’s in your control and that should be a positive feeling. Put more time into the exercising. You’ll feel better about yourself for actually doing it, not just for how it makes you look. Endorphins are a godsend. And stop looking in the mirror. I try not to look in the mirror very much–you can’t wake up and expect your body to be different than it was last night. You’ve got to realize that you’re living for yourself, not for other people. Nobody’s perfect. Only in Hollywood are people perfect and that’s because they spend thousands of dollars on trainers and diets and surgeries. That’s what we’re made to feel like we’re supposed to look like but if you put it in perspective, there’s nothing realistic about it!

QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

On accepting her imperfections
“The main thing you can change is how you perceive yourself. Stop looking in the mirror and realize you’re living for yourself, not other people. If we’re so busy trying to change ourselves, especially aesthetically, we’re going to miss out on other, bigger things.”

Her secret to sexy, shiny hair
“That’s easy! Never dye it. My hair is shiny because it is virginal. I dyed it once, but it’s all grown out since then. I also use shampoos that have shea butter and moisturizer in them. Sometimes after i shampoo I comb conditioner through it and put it up in a bun and never rinse it out.” Her shampoo picks: Sally Hershberger, Bumble and Bumble, and Frederic Fekkai.

Why she does not exercise compulsively
“Three times days a week I train with Harley Pasternak, who kicks my ass for 45 minutes. My legs are super stong. I love it! I used to live, eat, and sleep by an exercise schedule and I couldn’t enjoy myself if I didn’t exercise. And then I realized, “What a waste of time!” My soft parts are probably never going away.”

On areas in her own life where she can most use guidance
“I think it’s really just about love. That’s where a lot of my worry and fear comes from. I’ve had long-term relationships and it’s hard to define what they are when they’re over. People have given so much and taught me so much and vice versa, you don’t want them out of your life, so you maintain certain relationships.”

Why she’ll never go raw again
“I just did a five-day raw-food diet, but I’ll never do that again. It’s really hard! I’d wake up in the morning feeling great and go to bed feeling miserable, because dinner would be cucumbers, kale, and dressing. I mean, at the end of the day, if you can’t have a Girl Scout cookie and a piece of cheese, what it life all about?”

In “Letters to Juliet,” opening May 14, Amanda Seyfried’s Sophie is torn between two guys: the multifaceted Brit hottie Charlie (Aussie newcomer Christopher Egan) and her fiancé, the equally hot but clueless chef Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal). Call it Sophie’s choice — she eventually does choose between the two.

Although Seyfried’s co-stars, Egan and Bernal, promise plenty of eye candy in “Juliet,” the beautiful Italian countryside in the city of Verona (home of Shakespeare’s Juliet), where the movie is partly set, is also eye-catching. As part of our Summer Movie Preview, MTV News spoke to Seyfried, who admitted she’s still smitten with the flick’s gorgeous backdrop.

MTV: For a movie that’s basing itself on “Romeo and Juliet,” it’s not too heavy-handed about playing up that aspect.

Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, if “Romeo & Juliet” didn’t exist, the movie wouldn’t exist, but otherwise it’s its own story. Absolutely.

Keep reading

There is nothing director Catherine Hardwicke likes more than casting new talent. The woman responsible for propelling Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s careers into the stratosphere has now cast two unknowns in her upcoming project for Warner Bros., Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried. Shiloh Fernandez (pictured, top) will play Peter, the edgy bad boy from the wrong side of town who attracts Seyfried’s character, and Max Irons (pictured, bottom) will play Henry, the refined son of the wealthy blacksmithing family who is engaged to marry Seyfried. The final decision to cast the two teenagers competing for Seyfried’s affection came after Hardwicke held a two-day “smack-down” where she brought eight young actors to a Hollywood sound stage and had them compete for the part. “It was wild,” says the director, reminiscing about the 21 hours of tape she culled from the intense two-day try-out. “We had eight guys all competing with each other for two parts. They all read with Amanda and they also had to do fight scenes with each other. It was kinda good to get their aggression out.”

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All of a sudden, Amanda Seyfried is everywhere, and ahead of her next film, which involves working with Glenn Close adn John Banville, she discusses picking roles, long-distance relationships and writing songs with Damien Rice

FOR SOME LUCKY young Hollywood actors, there comes a moment when they become suddenly ubiquitous: out of nowhere, it seems, they’re constantly in the cinemas, on magazine covers, in gossip columns – everywhere they are supposed to be, essentially, and all at once. The speed with which this can happen is a mystifying part of the star-making process, so who better to ask about how it occurs than the suddenly ubiquitous 24-year-old actor Amanda Seyfried, who in short order has appeared in the steamy thriller Chloe , this week’s weepy Dear John , and another romance, Letters to Juliet , due later this summer, as well as the recent Vanity Fair Young Hollywood spread. Surely she can shed light on how a star is born?

“The only reason people say I’m having a moment is because all these movies are coming out at the same time,” she says, twirling a finger through her long blonde hair as she considers how she has reached this point. “But that wasn’t my doing at all. I did these movies separately, there were two and three months between all these films, but they’re all coming out in a short window. It’s dumb luck in the beginning, picking these parts, then it has to become calculated – you have to establish yourself a bit, and then you have to get quite strategic, which can be a pain in the ass, choosing between projects. It’s nice people are recognising me, though.”

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She was more dippy than mean in her 2004 film debut, Mean Girls, announcing vacantly that her breasts could predict the weather. But it took a most unlikely confection—the movie musical Mamma Mia!—for the world to see Amanda Seyfried in her full, dewy, wide-eyed loveliness. Since then she has become the go-to girl for modern fairy tales, including Lasse Hallström’s Dear John and the forthcoming Letters to Juliet. But watch for a 180-degree turn in this month’s Chloe, Atom Egoyan’s artsy sexual thriller, in which 24-year-old Seyfried plays the alluring, troubled complication in a failing marriage.

Articles
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Q&A Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried from Dear John
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Amanda Seyfried’s romantic romp
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A Lot of Girls Are Probably Really Jealous of Me

Videos
- Jessi Cruickshank Interview
- HitFlix Interview
- Jake The Movie Guy Interview
- My News 2 Interview (Charleston Premiere)
- Feel Fit & Fabulous Interview (Charleston Premiere)
- Amanda Speaking French Breifly
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- Talk Philly Interview (Talk Show)

There are times when the intensity of their scenes together in this film adaptation of author Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling novel seems more than real. But although the web may be working itself into something of a frenzy over these moments, don’t assume there was anything actually happening between the two stars during filming in South Carolina.

Trust Seyfried — an actress known for her big expressive eyes and personal warmth — on this one. Of course, she and Tatum knew they had great chemistry, but if that hadn’t been present, director Lasse Hallstrom would never have cast them together in the first place.

“We’re all actors and we know what’s going on,” she says cheerfully. “We’re not going to go home thinking about our co-star.”

In other words this was just a job — in the same way that the roles of Meryl Streep’s daughter in Mamma Mia or bigamist Bill Paxton’s offspring in the current cable TV hit, Big Love, were jobs.

Still, Seyfried knows full well that actors do fall in love with each other on set.

It happened with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Woman Of The Year, notoriously with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, and with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Mr. And Mrs. Smith.

Furthermore, it happened to Seyfried and current boyfriend Dominic Cooper when they fell for each other during the filming of Mamma Mia — and to Channing Tatum and wife Jenna Dewan when they starred together in Step Up in 2006.

But with Dear John, both of their significant others were around during the shooting.

Tatum remembers telling his co-star that neither of them should worry about their love scenes.

“I said to her: ‘Look! You have a boyfriend, I have a girlfriend and we’re totally in love. This is safe. We’ve just got to be these characters, and this is absolutely a safe place.’ That’s what I love about acting — you get to do these really emotional and loving characters, because it is safe. There’s no blurring of the lines. You know that you can express your emotions to somebody and there’s no confusion there. You know what you’re doing.”

Seyfried finds romantic chemistry — whether real or onscreen make-believe — fascinating.

“You meet somebody, and you just click,” she muses. “I think that because we’re all actors; it was much easier for our significant others to deal with the fact that we’re playing a love story — and the fact that the love plays so well on screen that you really believe it.”

On-screen chemistry — as opposed to the romantic chemistry that happens in real life — can be elusive. Seyfried had to fight for the role of wealthy southern girl Savannah Curtis in the movie opening Feb. 5. She had met Hallstrom in Sweden when Mamma Mia premiered there — and, she giggles, “That’s where our love affair began. We had a good time, we connected, and he wanted me to do it.”

But her battle wasn’t over yet. “Even though a director wants you, it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to get the role.”

There remained the big question about whether she would set off sparks with Tatum, who was being eyed for the role of the handsome, sensitive Special Forces soldier she meets when he’s on leave from the wars in the Middle East. The chance encounter between these two deepens into a passionate love, which is placed in jeopardy when they’re once again separated.

Seyfried and Tatum had to do a “chemistry read” — but that wasn’t the end of it. The two had to go back and do some further scenes “because they still weren’t sure.” Only then did it become a “done deal.”

Both the original novel and Jamie Linden’s screenplay for Dear John seek to deliver more than fairy-tale romance — and that’s a clear plus factor for Seyfried.

“I’ve always been subtle to a fault,” she admits. “I like to be more thoughtful.” That’s her approach, whether it’s a piece of musical froth like Mamma Mia, a bittersweet love story like Dear John, or “a very heavy psycho thriller” like Chloe, which comes out later in the year.

In the case of Dear John, she likes the way the story takes unexpected tangents and raises issues about human behaviour and personal relationships. That’s why the character of Savannah intrigued her so much.

“I saw her as a young girl who actually knows herself pretty well at her young age of 22 … which is fine. But she’s had this strict upbringing, She’s very wealthy, but doesn’t put on any airs. She’s cool. She’s special. She’s a good role model, I think, for young women, and I think that’s why she was written that way. There’s nothing weighing her down in her life.”

But then this young woman who “is so level-headed, balanced and open-hearted” must respond to an emotional crisis that, in Seyfried’s words, is “devastating.” Savannah behaves in a way totally alien to Seyfried’s own standards, for example, the “Dear John” letter of the film’s title that sees Savannah breaking off her relationship with John Tyree (Tatum) because she can’t stand being away from him. Asked whether she could ever sever a relationship by letter or e-mail, Seyfried is immediate in her response.

“No, I couldn’t,” she says bluntly. “I’m thinking back on my relationships, and those relationships weren’t the type where you can just do that. I think it’s kind of cowardly.”

She can’t imagine herself behaving the way her character behaves.

“But I love playing people I can’t connect to, because it’s all the more challenging.”

Source: The Province

Girls were practically tearing their hair out of their heads for an opportunity to take a picture with Tatum (G.I. Joe, Step Up) and Seyfried (Mamma Mia!, Big Love). Tatum wore “just Gucci” while Seyfried was super sweet (and tiny) in a red Stella McCartney dress and stacked silver pumps, which she promptly changed out of after posing for the press. Both talked of loving Charleston (duh) and buying houses here (insert excited squeal here), and Seyfried casually mentioned she had visited her future house and neighbor (whom she loves) already that day. “Charleston and St. Louis are two of the best places in the world,” she gushed.

When we asked Tatum about his role in the movie, an adaptation of a novel by former South Carolina resident Nicholas Sparks about a soldier who falls in love with a girl before heading off to war, the actor said the part had been more risky than any of his previous endeavors. Tatum said that he went from doing G.I. Joe, “where things are exploding everywhere,” to filming scenes where he had to make a connection with the audience. He admitted that entertaining without the special effects was more work.

Amid all the ruckus of frenzied fans, the principle cause for the event was sometimes forgotten — to raise money for Carolina Autism, an organization that offers therapy for children with autism. The producers of the film chose the charity and the location of the premiere in honor of Braeden Reed, a Charleston native. Braeden, a seven-year-old actor with autism, stars in the film.
Braeden was the first actor to greet the press. He stood alongside his parents, Kevin and Adrienne, and he talked about his favorite scene in the film — one in which he got to be around horses. He reassured us that, no, he did not have any tricks up his sleeve for memorizing all those lines.

“Do all these people make you nervous?” Tatum asked Braeden when they met on the “red carpet.” Tatum then said. “They make me nervous!”

Director Lasse Hallstrom (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Chocolat) was delighted with Reed’s involvement in the movie.

“I love mixing amateurs and actors,” said Hallstrom, who brought his 14-year-old daughter, Tora, along for what she assured me was not her first premiere.

We were inches away from having a picture taken with Tatum and Seyfried when the pair were whisked away to the stage to auction off autographed movie posters. The items sold for $800. Impressive.

The general consensus among premiere attendees was that Dear John was a solid chick flick that guys wouldn’t mind watching. And while many agreed it wasn’t at all like The Notebook, a previously successful Sparks’ adaptation starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, most said it was a tearjerker. Surprise, surprise.

Toward the end of the night, we caught up with a very sleepy Braeden Reed. He was slung over his father’s shoulder. Fortunately for the tired child, Braeden was taking the next day off from school.

Kevin Reed told us Braeden has no idea that he is a celebrity. “The best thing about him is he sees everything in black and white, so he has no ego,” the father said.

The Reeds have already planned a return visit to the Aquarium during regular hours when the gift shop is open. Braeden was devastated when he discovered it was closed for the party.

“Not everyone realizes he is only seven,” said Kevin.

Source: Charleston City Paper