Amanda Seyfried has learned to say no. Fifteen years after her break- out role as Karen ‘The Plastic’ in Mean Girls, who wears pink only on Wednesdays, she has started standing up for herself. She attributes this new-found confidence as much to becoming a mother – she gave birth to a daughter (whose name she prefers not to share) last March – as she does to the #Time’sUp and #MeToo movements.
‘I just have a little bit more fire behind me and feel worth something,’ she says as we sit hidden away in a corner of Claridges – or at least as hidden as anyone who looks like Seyfried can be, dressed in very unshowy clothes: black jeans and a neutral jumper. ‘I have a daughter now – I have to step up. Because if I’m going to do this, it’s going to be worth my time. And I’m going to be respected.’
This self-assurance proved to be useful when it was time to negotiate her contract for her role as Sophie in the Mamma Mia sequel, which is out in July, a whole decade after the original. You’d expect the red carpet to be rolled out for the co-star of the 73rd biggest-grossing film of all time, but no. ‘It’s funny, because the studio played hard to get,’ she says. ‘They were like, “We could recast.” Somebody actually said that. You would recast me? I don’t matter? Really? Is this because I’m a woman?’
And then she found out that Dominic [Cooper, who plays her on-screen partner, Sky] was being offered the same salary. ‘I fuck- ing hit the roof. I was like, “No, dude. You can’t do this anymore.” Because I’m not going to keep my mouth shut about this. God bless him, Dom is wonderful. But how is that fair? [For another film I did a few years ago,] I got paid 10 per cent of what my co-star got. On a movie where he that actor was a little bit more well known, but not really.’
At this point, a family of four approaches our table. They turn out not to be the pushy, eagle-eyed fans I assume – always awks when your smooth, seamless interviewing technique gets thwarted by ran- doms asking for autographs – but Seyfried’s agent, with her husband and kids, en route to do some sightseeing. Seyfried introduces us.
‘You’re going to be mad at me,’ she says to her agent, Evelyn.
‘Why?’ says Evelyn.
‘I’m talking about the pay gap.’
‘That’s fine,’ I interject. ‘Everyone is. It’s fashionable. And it’s very important!’
Evelyn does her best poker face – it is impossible to guess her feelings. The family departs to look at some monuments.
So whose fault is it? Is it an endemic, historical, ingrained culture in Hollywood where no one but every- one is to blame? ‘Basically, everybody wants to pay the least amount and make the most profit. Do I blame them the studios? No. I blame the system that it’s gone on for so long. Why is there a fear to ask for more? Where did that fear come from? I don’t know. But I felt like with Mamma Mia 2, OK, I hear you, you say you can recast me, but I don’t believe you. And I’m going to stand up for myself and say “no” until I’m happy. And ultimately, we did end up in that happy place with the negotiations’.
Does it feel like a powerful time to be a woman in Hollywood?
‘Absolutely. People aren’t afraid. The #MeToo and #Time’sUp movements are all about feeling empowered to tell the truth and not be afraid of repercussions. Because that’s the thing. You want to keep your job, your sanity, your reputation. You can preserve those now; you can make sure that nobody else is being silenced, or made to feel uncomfortable or violated.’
As someone who has worked nonstop since the age of 15 – starting out on US soaps, then on cult 2004 hit Mean Girls (‘a genius film’, she says) before taking on an eclectic body of work as disparate as Les Misérables, Ted 2 and Lovelace – Seyfried says motherhood has helped her develop a new love for what she does.
‘I think it’s because I’m being treated differently; there’s a level of respect. Things are better now I’m older, rather than as a teenager, when I was treated terribly: “Oh, you’re in your 30s now? I guess I can trust your opinion, or trust you’ll show up to work on time,” even though I’ve never, ever been late, even as a 15-year-old. But I feel like now I have a kid, it just goes without saying that I’m responsible.’
Seyfried says men also treat her differently now. ‘I’ve been treated pretty poorly. This has especially been the case for me because I look young and don’t like confrontation. That’s another thing I learned after having a child: not to take things so personally, because it’s such a waste of time.’
Another member of her team approaches our table, holding a bowl of chips. Well, not really a bowl; more a silver bucket, for in Claridges, this is how chips are served. ‘I don’t want to waste them,’ she says, taking possession of the chips, which are presumably no longer required by the original recipient. They are stone-cold – I check by eating one – but she says she would rather eat them than order new ones.
I ask how the sleep deprivation with a one-year-old is going. ‘Maybe you’ll think I’m an asshole, but my mother is our nanny,’ she smiles. ‘Not for free,’ she adds hastily. ‘She came out of retirement to live with us and it’s amazing. I sleep so well.’ Which is presumably why, unlike me, she hasn’t ordered a double espresso.
Her ‘us’ also includes her husband, actor Thomas Sadoski, who Seyfried married quietly last year. She gives Donald Trump credit for bringing them together: ‘It was one of those things where Trump had gotten elected, the world was going mad, and I was like, “This is a dream I might never wake up from. If that’s the case, let’s just get married.”’
So they did. And eventually, they turned their attention to starting a family. ‘That’s a very serious thing. It’s way bigger [than a marriage]. So we were both like, “Meh.” And then we were both like, “Yeah!”’
Having a child has made Seyfried more aware of mortality and future-proofing the world she will one day leave behind. She tells me she feels an urgent need to understand what’s happening in the world, more now than she did years before. But as disturbing as the current news cycle is, the younger generation gives her hope.
‘With everything that’s happening, gun control… These kids are blowing my mind. They are not afraid, and they are beautiful. I just hope for my daughter’s generation to be even more empowered, truthful and kind.’
Having grown up in the all-American city of Allentown, Pennsylvania, as the child of an occupational therapist mother and pharmacist father, she’s horrified by current US gun laws.
‘What exactly are you protecting? At this point, I actually demand a reason as to why people believe that assault rifles should be sold in Walmart. Why do you need an assault rifle? Arming teachers? Teachers are not security guards. Teachers are not bodyguards. They are fucking teachers. They’re there to educate. Fuck you. Kids are being killed. And they keep saying, “It’s not the guns that kill people, it’s the mental illness.” Well then, let’s talk about mental illness.’
Uncharacteristically for a Hollywood actress, Seyfried has been open about her own mental illness, which includes lengthy battles with OCD and anxiety. She has been on Lexapro since she was 19.
‘I’m not on a very high dose,’ she says. ‘There’s definitely a wrong and a right drug for each person. It’s all about your chemistry. Medication is very helpful for OCD. They say it’s 30 per cent helpful and the other 70 per cent is your own work. Pharma companies are the devil in a lot of ways, but we need those drugs. It’s just how they’re being managed [that worries me].
'Who’s getting paid to say what? And who’s getting paid to give you what? That’s my concern: everybody’s medicated and they don’t need to be. I have friends that are medicated who don’t need anything, just some sun.’ She pauses, frowning. ‘In my opinion.’
Whether you agree with her or not, it’s to Seyfried’s credit that she is willing to speak out on such an emotive, contentious subject as prescription drugs. I tell her I have never been medicated, and even balk at taking paracetamol. ‘Really?’ she says. ‘Oh God, I love paracetamol.’ One of the biggest surprises of motherhood, she says, is that her OCD actually improved.
‘I prepared myself before I had her by going back to CBT [Cognitive Behavioural Therapy], just to get myself in that frame of mind to notice when my OCD might be getting worse. But it turns out you’re way too busy with other things anyway. It definitely didn’t void it, but it’s absolutely gotten quieter. You have less time to worry, or to focus or obsess about things you maybe used to, and it’s so grounding. It’s real. They depend on you completely now. I’m her mother.’
Delighted by motherhood as Seyfried is, she is also candid. We agree that being apart from your kids is not always as fraught and tragic an occasion as common lore might have it. ‘People are like, “You must be missing her desperately,” and I’m like, “I’m not.”’
‘Yes, I FaceTime her three times a day, but I actually feel OK because I have this time back. I’m staying in a hotel room, I get to knit whenever I want, I get to listen to audio books, and I can’t do that at home any more.
'Now I’m here, I have this extra space again. I’m really enjoying the present and being more mindful.’
I’m not a fan of the ‘M’ word, it makes me feel violent. But Amanda is so charming, I let it pass.
When she’s not working, she’s either in LA, where husband Sadoski is currently filming the TV show Life in Pieces, or at their farm in the Catskills, which is upstate in New York. Hers sounds like a truly mindful, and very animal-centric life.
As her 2.7m Instagram followers know only too well, Seyfried is the proud owner of Finn, an Australian shepherd rescue dog to whom she is so devoted that it’s written into her contracts that he be allowed on every set. She also has two donkeys, three goats, six hens and a horse borrowed from a neighbouring farm. What does she think animals add to life? ‘Everything,’ she says. ‘Just goodness.’
Goodness is exactly what Seyfried’s life seems full of, a balance of being fully in charge at work, plus the animals and her baby. ‘When I had her, I came into my own,’ she smiles, showing me a picture on her iPhone. ‘I’m so relieved all the worry was for nothing; that I’ve proven to myself I can do anything.’ And it seems she really can.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is out on 27 July
This article is a revised version of the original article printed in the July issue of ELLE UK. The quote printed in the magazine; ‘I got paid 10 per cent of what my co-star got,’ was not referring to Mamma Mia 1 and Dominic Cooper, but in fact in relation to another film and co-star from Amanda Seyfried’s earlier career.
