After playing blonde bombshells in Mamma Mia and Mean Girls, Amanda Seyfried taps into her darker side to play Seventies porn star Linda Lovelace on her journey from international sensation, following 1972s infamous Deep Throat, to anti-porn crusader.
ELLE sat down with Amanda who was wearing a Sachin + Babi dress to get the inside story.
Was this role a challenge in terms of your career so far?
I feel like there arent a lot of opportunities for someone my age to play somebody really fascinating. I would like for people to not say, boy this is such a departure for you. Id like people to get used to me playing lots of different things in lots of different genres thats acting.
Have you felt slightly frustrated up to this point?
Yeah. A lot of people in the industry see me doing one thing. Its partly my fault. I never dye my hair and Im always playing a version of myself which is really fun and satisfying. But there are certain roles over the years that Ive seen go directly to different actresses and Ive thought, that would have been a good challenge. I still audition a lot. I had to audition for Les Mis six times!
Six! What did you have to do for this?
Nothing. Kate Hudson got pregnant! I was hesitant at first. Hollywood can be tough on younger actresses and theres a taboo when it comes to sex and porn. But as soon as I met the director I felt confident that theyd make something really good out of it.
How did you prepare for the role?
I met Lindas kids. That was the moment where it really hit home. Linda got to tell her story only so much and people only listened up to a point, so that responsibility was crazy. It was intense I felt like a stalker at points. She was a good Catholic girl who got thrust into the industry against her will. I think its hard for people to understand that she had such a hard time because it looked like she was having so much fun. But once you see this movie you realise what was actually happening throughout. The only times she got away from Chuck Traynor were the times that she was surrounded by the cast of Deep Throat.
How did you tackle the sex scenes?
It wasnt something I thought twice about because I did a film called Chloe and that was pretty graphic compared to this. This seemed like a piece of cake. What was really hard to tackle were the violent scenes. Everything is choreographed, but its much harder to grasp being manhandled in that way. Violence is very prevalent in our world and knowing that she was going through that was hard.
Lovelace is out 23 August.
Watch an exclusive clip from the film below
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