Actress a Day: Amanda Seyfried
Monday, August 13, 2012 at 2:00PM It occurred to me yesterday that no one ever speaks of Amanda Seyfried when they speak of Les Misérables, it's always 'Hugh this' and 'Hathaway that' and 'can Barks act for the big screen?' and so on. So for today's "Actress A Day" here's a little Seyfried, she of the flaxen hair, wide spread eyes and vaguely inexplicable career choices.
Gone... Really?
I can't say I fully get Amanda's career but I can tell you that she is super difficult to draw. I went through so many sketches and she always ended up looking more like Goldie or Reese or Lindsay until I finally gave up because this project is meant to be quick sketches and if I'm going to do it I can't be a perfectionist!
What's your favorite Amanda Seyfriend performance. I'm still most fond of the early ones: Mean Girls and Big Love. Will Lovelace or Les Mis finally make good on all that endearing early promise?
Reader Comments (29)
I'd be more fond of Amanda Seyfried if she didn't spend the last oh I don't know...five years in just one shitty movie after the other. A paycheck's a paycheck, but damn girl, you aint gotta be slummin' it in Jennifer's Body and shit if you don't want to. So when I saw her name in Les Miserables, that was the first time I was hoping that movie wasn't a big overblown sappy musical that inevitably swept the Oscars, but an actually GOOD musical that inevitably swept the Oscars. Just for Amanda's sake. I'm lookin' out for you girl, and I think she's looking out for herself, too. Sharon Stone spent most of the '80s in bad movies before Total Recall/Basic Instinct, it aint never too late for sexy blonde actresses to turn it around.
I really love Seyfried in Mean Girls and *whispers* Mamma Mia!. She's just such a comic gem in the former, and I remember being completely enchanted by her in the latter. Here's hoping that she proves herself in Les Misérables and Lovelace. It'd be great to see a modern-day screen star be synonymous with movie musicals.
I actually threw Mamma Mia! into the Blu-Ray player just for some guilty fun, and... maybe I can't simply enjoy an admittedly bad and cheesy movie anymore for being bad and cheesy, but I gave up about thirty minutes into it (right before "Chiquitita" began).
Such unnecessary loudness about everything, poor directing of comedy that comes off more as embarrassing than funny, bad lighting, Meryl Streep trying way too hard to prove that she isn't always such a "serious" actress... yikes
I loved her in the first perfs and think that she was good along with Julianne The Great in CHLOE, don't think that Cosette is such a great role in LES MIZ but if she deliver I will be very glad for her!
To me, Seyfried's been losing stock-value. She's following a Lohanian path where this clearly talented actress/singer is filling her previously promising resume with pretty awful movies. I know this sounds shallow, but she's becoming less and less likeable in interviews. I'm
afraid the fame and money could go to her head and she stops trying. In any job, why would you try if you keep getting paid and hired for low-quality work?
I agree with most of you guys, it's a real shame she doesn't pick good roles anymore considering how incredibly hilarious she is in 'Mean Girls' and how amazing she was in 'Big Love' (if you want to witness, I think the episode "Come, Ye Saints" if memory serves correctly is a great showcase of her talents).
Hopefully, Les Miz will bring her back on track.
She was very good in Chloe
Am I allowed to say that she always reminds me of La Pfeiffer in her early years? Please don't hate me. I love you.
PS I also like her in Mamma Mia! Probably the only thing I can stomach of that thing.
Peggy Sue -- i couldn't possibly hate you. And also I agree. Which is why i was so fond of Seyfried... at first. I really wanted it to be her and Michelle as mother /daughter in Mamma Mia (though that movie was AWFUL so no great loss)
I loved Amanda Seyfried in "Mean Girls": she was simply hilarious and a true scene-stealer.
Even after "Jennifer's Body" and "Dear John", I liked Miss Seyfried... But then she lost all my respect by starring "Red Riding Hood". I mean, the girl can act, for how could she star a movie like that? (I forgive Gary Oldman and Julie Christie for their fabulous careers).
Hope "Les Misérables" put her career back on track... she's better than her own body of work!
She just wanted to spend some time jumping on all the hot men in Hollywood, you guys! I cannot blame her. I know what I would choose if I had a pile of scripts in one hand and Dominic Cooper's junk in the other.
Also, Jennifer's Body is wonderful.
As Well as Les Miz she has the Linda Lovelace biopic coming up and that could be areal turn around for her.
I know we're all about the movies here, but no Veronica Mars fans in the house? I don't think she was ever a regular cast member, but she was great in the flashbacks as Lily Kane. Mean Girls is an easy runner-up, but if watch Veronica Mars if you want to see her as more of a Regina George type.
I really never would have guessed that she would have ended up the biggest star out of everyone on that show.
Ooh I'm so relief!
She clearly shares the same born to be on camera thing that Michelle had from day one.
Who exactly is discussing whether Barks can act in a movie? I haven't read a thing about her since her casting in Les Mis was announced. At any rate, Seyfried is fourth billed, behind three better known actors. It's not surprising that what attention Les Mis has received so far has been directed towards Jackman, Hathaway, and Crowe. Everyone knows that Seyfreid can sing and act, but there is understandable curiosity about whether Crowe and Hathaway can sing.
As far as Seyfried's career goes, it's a classic case of poor career management, with some bad luck thrown in. Bad career management comes into play with Gone and the upcoming disaster titled The Big Wedding, while bad luck played a role in Jennifer's Body and Red Riding Hood. Jennifer's Body was a dark comedy/teen melodrama that was marketed by Fox as a slasher flick. That didn't work out too well for them. Fanboys hated it and the crowd that it was made for were turned off by the marketing.
Red Riding Hood looked good on paper, initially. The fairy tale was interesting source material, DiCaprio's company was producing, Warner Bros was distributing, and Hardwicke had been on winning streak. Even early drafts of the script were good. Then all hell broke loose when Hardwicke screwed up the casting of the young male leads (I don't think it would be possible to find worse actors than Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons) and decided to turn RRH from a dark fairy tale movie into the Twilight sequel she wasn't able to make. A perfect example of what went wrong is what happened to Julie Christie's character. The grandmother was a craggy old lady living in a creepy hovel in a dark forest in early versions of the script. Hardwicke changed the grandmother into a new age, hippie chick who would be more likely to offer you some patchouli tea than to possibly turn into a werewolf.
While the failure of Jennifer's Body and RRH can be chalked up to bad luck, the rest has to be blamed on being represented by a crappy agent (Abby Bluestone) and a crappy agency called Innovative Artists. IA is a little third tier agency that most of it's more successful clients have the sense to leave once they achieve a certain degree of success. If Seyfried wants to get her career back on track, she needs to fire her agent, and move to one of the major agencies like WME or CAA. Hiring a manager wouldn't be a bad idea either. She is the one of the few established actors under the age of 40 without one. I hope she is able to get her career together. She's one of the more enjoyable 20 something actresses.
I always assumed she was a great supporting character actress in her Mean Girls/Big Love days but she's been doing "Leading Lady" type things now and I'm not so impressed by her. Come on, Amanda! Quit accepting roles that are offered and actively search for something good!
You nailed the big green eyes!
I loved her in Big Love and Mama Mia
But them she went into the doldrums
Hope she can salvage her career!
I agree with Liz N. The first season of Veronica Mars is essentially structured around the impact her character's death/absence has on the characters, and she does a terrific job in the flashbacks.
"Gone" was so silly, I actually kinda enjoyed it.
I liked her best in Letters to Juliet. She had an easy naturalistic style and looked thrilled to be acting opposite Vanessa Redgrave. From what I've seen of Chloe, she looked good there too. Maybe the company and example of older better actors brings out the best in her. (And I liked her dark haired look in In Time, but her costar was only adequate).
Jennifer's Body was awesome!
I think Amanda handles the vocals in MAMMA MIA! with aplomb and I'm looking forward to her in LES MIS. The love montage (I Saw Him Once, In My Life, A Heart Full of Love) is one of my favourite pieces in the musical and I hope it makes the film.
Hers is not the showiest or most dramatic part by any stretch, so it's important to have a talented singer and experienced actress in the role so Cosette doesn't fade into the background.
Michelle Pfeiffer, really? I've enjoyed Amanda Seyfried's acting thus far, but the actual person has always struck me as a bit ... dim. Which MIchelle Pfeiffer is anything but.
Sean, Anne Hathaway can sing. Please , youtube her singing videos.
Seyfried is fantastic! Her career has been booming these past few years. In terms of the quality of work, you have to look at it from a working actor's point of view. Not everything you're offered will be Sophie's Choice or Mean Girls. You grow your resume. You become a staple in the industry, then the Les Miz and Lovelace's come your way. It takes time to have a filmography in a Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney type of way. She's growing an audience, clout in the industry, and the girl came, in a way, from like no where. And to be a white blond American girl in the Hollywood film industry is difficult because there are SO many. She's stood out, worked with fantatstic actors, and directors. Has performed great screenplays. She's so young, and very much on her way.
I ADORED her in Mean Girls, and Chloe showed me a really interesting actress she can be. CAN NOT WAIT to see her in Les Miz!!!!
I say give Amanda Seyfried some time (and hope that she'll choose a new agent). She does have some talent. Look at other good actors and actresses today who have been working on their craft FOR YEARS before the accolades started rolling in. And they still choose bad roles. Colin Firth, for example, starred in the very awful Main Street that was released the same year as The King's Speech. The readers of this blog's darling, Anne Hathaway, was fantastic in Rachel Getting Married then went on to make Bride Wars and Valentine's Day.
And, if Amanda would just lose the heavy eyeliner, she would be much more appealing and less "bitchy" in interviews!
It's unfortunate that she chose interesting projects that crashed and burned (critical-wise or boxoffice-wise, or both). All of the following projects looked good on paper, Jennifer's Body (Diablo Cody penned-I love this flick), In Time (Imaginative sci-fi plotline directed by creative Andrew Niccol), Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicked, the possible franchise), even upcoming The Big Wedding (De Niro, Keaton, Sarandon). She needs to pay more attention to the scripts rather than who is involved with the movie.
I'm so glad when they announced she was casted in high-profile pic like Les Mis, she needed quality project (again, good on paper ..oh well). Hope it really turn things around for her. She has star quality.
I didn't realize that she was in the same girl from Mean Girls when I watched Mamma Mia!
Blah. It's hard to feel bad for her when she really does have all the advantages in her corner. And she hasn't done much worthy of her wonderful talents on display in Mean Girls and Big Love since. If she were smart, she'd drop the leading lady schtick and try her hand at being a great character actress because so far, that's where she's been luckiest. Perfect example is her quiet work in Rodrigo García's Nine Lives from 2005. She's in one of the more subtle segments with a couple of impressive actors but still manages to deliver some noteworthy work. Not the MVP of the movie or anything but solid work with an interesting character under the steering of a good director. Why not more of that, 'Mands?