Vogue Cover Star Amanda Seyfried on Becoming Ann Lee

0:07This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mao. And today on the show, Vogue senior editor Chloe Shama and I had the very great pleasure of speaking with our current cover star Amanda Seifred. She came into the Vogue office on Tuesday afternoon, straight from the Golden Globes in L.A. on Sunday night. And we were so excited to chat with her. She is so charming and has a lot going on. She has 52 farm animals. She does a 90-minute farm feed every morning, which I was just in awe of. She is a huge crafter. She's doing all kinds of origami, all kinds of knitting and crocheting. Also, of course, we discussed her incredible performance in The Testament of Anne Lee and her smash hit The Housemaid, also currently out now.

0:58But without further ado, here's Amanda sandwiched by two Chloes.

1:08Welcome, Amanda. Hi. I am. Welcome. Ladies. We are so excited that you're here. And I really, it was this kind of exciting, creeping thing in our office of people seeing this movie. And then other people who hadn't seen it yet working on the photo shoot and the treatment of it being like, can I go to a screening? Can you send me the screening link? It really became this sort of a sleeper club that people at Vogue wanted to be part of. We did do the shoot before it came out. Yeah. The shoot was right before Thanksgiving, I think. So it was, yeah, it was a month before it came out. Feels like just yesterday with Eddie Ray.

1:46Oh, I know. I love that shoot. Yeah, really so beautiful. I love the fashion Jordan picked. Oh, my God, she's great. And the sun and the winter landscape was, I mean, that's, I don't think he needed to Photoshop anything in the background. Didn't seem like it. He might have gotten rid of a cow, but. Yeah, we heard about the cow. I know. The errant cow that you insisted. Swear there's a cow there. It existed. Amanda, I want to hear about your whiplash traveled. When did you get back from the Globes? I got back last night. Okay. We're speaking to Amanda on Tuesday morning. I'm very impressed that you are here looking very fresh.

2:26Thank you. Yeah, I feel fresh. I loved your Globes look. This was a Versace dress that took 400 hours to make. I was surprised by that. It was— Love to see it. I was curious. Yeah, just also, like, I couldn't—I have to give respect to the ateliers. The seamstress who put the—folded all that silk, it was—it's too much. And it looked like perfection. It was my favorite look. I loved—it was—for me, it was sort of giving Mank. I loved it. It's very old— It was very old Hollywood. I was a big Mank fan. I love that movie. That's cool. Thank you. So what is the plan for the rest of award season dressing?

3:08How do you and Elizabeth, Elizabeth Stewart's your stylist, how do you map that out together? I think we have some really great relationships with different fashion houses, and we have our favorites. And I think it's just a conversation between them and her at first without me involved at all. And then she'll come to me with who's interested in dressing me. and we've been wearing a lot of Prada and we decided to wear a Versace which is always trusted and beautiful and classic as well and so for the awards some of them were just going to be Versace and then the rest is like Prada, Miu Miu I love Sarah Burton's Givenchy I'd love to wear one of those I used to wear Givenchy all the time with Riccardo yeah there's just, I don't know they have a lot of conversations Tiffany, they are just spraying me in diamonds every opportunity I get.

4:05And that's been really fun because some of them are archival pieces, which is incredible. And I want to do a story on like all the security guards from the jewelry houses who have to be sort of lurking at the award shows. Because there's a lot of high carrots. You ever befriend any of them? Oh, God. You know, I always, I have this one or two girls who come and grab it from me, but I don't have security following me at events, which is funny because, you know, it's a lot to be wearing. I did ask them once at Tiffany for the Academy Museum gala. I was like, why aren't we wearing fake versions of what you're selling?

4:42Yeah. Just for relief of stress, that extra anxiety for everybody, including the wearer. and she's like, it's just not how we do it. It's not ethical. And I'm like, okay, well, yeah. I mean, plenty of art collectors now, that's a whole thing of having fake paintings hanging in your house and then having the real ones in a vault. It's a bit weird, but it's the idea. I mean, you do have it, but I remember someone the other night, this cutie actress, was like, oh, my ring fell off. My ring fell off my glove. And then all of a sudden, everybody was like, got their phones out and it was like an emergency event.

5:17Immediately. Oh, thank God. Immediately, because I know she would have imploded. I know that feeling of like checking the ears all the time. But one night I actually got home. I think it was after the Academy Museum gala. And I got back to my, I stayed with my friend Peter in LA. And we were at the bottom of the driveway. It was raining. My driver and the driver of the necklace who was coming to pick up, he wasn't a guard. He was just, he worked for the company to retrieve the necklace. So with the flashlight in the middle of the night, my driver and this other guy were trying to take off this archival piece.

5:56And they couldn't get it. So I had to FaceTime Jordan, Elizabeth's assistant, to tell them how to do it. Wow. And then so I was on FaceTime. The driver of the pickup had his phone's flashlight on, and my driver, his hands were trying to— Not in the job description. Not again. I will never do this again. And the next day, I was wearing a gorgeous new piece from the Blue Book. I was also obsessed when you and Julia Roberts wore the Versace jeans look at Venice back-to-back. Credit me. I credit you. Credit me. Was that a good idea? It was my idea. Was that your idea? It was a good idea. But, you know, Julia has been working with Elizabeth Stewart forever.

6:45And you should just look hot. And I was like, is it still there? She's still there. It must still be there. And Elizabeth's like, oh, my God, she loves it. It was a great idea. And it's so rare that people actually have fun with what they're doing. So I was very into that. We should be recycling these things. We should be recycling them a lot more. Incredible looks, too, by incredibly talented artists in fashion. I want to know if there was anything that we didn't see at the Golden Globes that was exciting. I feel like if it wasn't on cable or network cameras, it was on selfie videos. Yeah. You can't get away from that.

7:22I do wonder what it was like back in the 90s and the early aughts when people didn't have cell phones and video cameras because it's like I was having a conversation with somebody and it was on – it's all over Instagram and I'm just like – And they're reading your lips. Is that ethical? But there was – it was right there. Somebody was right there. And I was just like, how are we not allowed to go to certain Broadway shows and bring our phones in? Yeah. And how are we at the Golden Globes? And do we just not have in-depth conversations or like are we always – should we be afraid of our privacy or is it for the taking?

7:56And then it's like that's kind of a bigger question like being a celebrity. You know, I do understand the lack of privacy and I respect the fact that I gave it away. But there are still moments when I forget that people are watching. And it was a little bit like unnerving when I saw that because I just believed, I guess stupidly, that it was a private conversation. Yeah. Who were you having a conversation with? Jennifer Lawrence. And so I will say my favorite part of the party was being at the A24 party at the Chateau. All the parties were there. Most of the parties were there. And I was just on the couch with a bunch of people that I like and don't ever see except at award shows or fashion events.

8:37I also, it was a big topic in our office how delighted we were by your comment on Timothy's Instagram about him thanking Kylie for the foundation. Because we all in our chat were like, does he have a charitable foundation when he said that? And I do, it was a very, we felt very validated by you being like, wait. I'm so sorry, I'm clarifying things. I swear I know now that when I comment on Evan Ross Katz's Instagram, which I kind of can't help but do often because I live for him or his memes. And and now I know that he's in a spot like that, which is fine. But also, I think I just I shouldn't have said it out loud, but it was funny to me because that's that's first what I thought because I didn't see her there.

9:27Yeah, I know. And then I saw her and I was like, oh, that's really sweet. he's talking about her. But then I just thought it was funny to like recap in the text. I don't know. I'm glad that we were all thinking that because a lot of people did text me. They're like, oh my God. Yes. We all were like, oh, what's his foundation for? But you know what? This is his sign to start a foundation. Yeah. So true. Yeah. I don't care who it's for. I mean, make it about kids, I guess. You know what? I'm not going to tell him what to do. He's a smart guy. Yeah. Ping pong foundation. Yeah, totally. For kids. No, I'm kidding.

10:01You do you, Timothy. Ping pong for kids. Yeah, exactly. We should take a moment to congratulate you on the Vogue cover. We already said, but it was photographed by Eddie Ray. You're wearing Valentino, an amazing dress. The shoot took place upstate. And I think one of the things we all resonated to was just like the juxtaposition of these super glamorous dresses with that like pastoral landscape that you talked about. But we did want to hear, you have a farm upstate. What are you normally wearing in the farm around the house? Around the house, usually, if I'm feeding in the morning, the night before, I'll just put on thicker sweatpants to sleep in because I know that I'm not going to want to change when I wake up.

10:39What time is feeding? And who are you feeding? Feeding 9, 930. We're not an early riser farm. When I'm feeding, I open up the chickens and the peacocks first. And I'm always wearing those big, even in the summer, I'll wear the big, tall muck boots, the ones you can't drive a car in because your foot can't. reach the pedal but that's just in the in the summertime you're working with a lot of water all the time and it and in the winter you're kind of less like you're more covered so I don't like to get my legs and my sweatpants wet so I'm always wearing the high boots I do the chickens and the peacocks I feed the ducks at the pond I walk across I get the gator first I feed the little miniature ponies to the right and sometimes during the summer the donkey and the pony are with them.

11:28In the winter, they're in another pasture because of ice and mud and thaw. And then I'll open up the bunny. I'll put the hay near the goats. I'll go around to the front. I'll feed all the big horses on the different paddocks. There's three of them, four of them. And then I'll feed the other mini ponies. And then I'll go in the barn and I'll do the cats. And then I will go into the back and then fully open up the goats and then reset. And that's basically And there's ducks in the back as well. This is a long. It's now up to 90 minutes because of all the extra animals. Like the bunny doesn't take up a lot of time, but it takes up a lot of space.

12:05In what way? What does that mean? He needs a lot of space. Like physical space. The bunny needs a lot. Okay. I thought it was like holding space, like emotional space. I have not been able to connect emotionally to that bunny yet. Okay. What's his name? He's a rescue. His name's Bugsy. Okay. He could be 37 years old. I have absolutely no idea. His eyes, he has a droopy, wet eye. But he's very nice, it seems. But, like, you know, he needs to eat fresh veggies and stuff like that. Like, nobody else needs cats to need their cat food. Those cats are definitely 37. I don't think they're ever going to perish.

12:44What's the total animal count right now? 52, because someone asked me recently. Do you feed with anyone? I have a caretaker who runs the farm because I'm not there so often. Do you listen to anything when you're feeding? Always audiobooks. What's your audiobook of the moment? Right now, now it's all different. If the dead belong, here's what I'm doing. And I recently added A Marriage at Sea. Oh, that's so good. The book Sleep by Honor Jones, I just ate up. And The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne was a long one, and I went on that ride. He's like Franzen to me. Wow. I know that's crazy because Jonathan Franzen really is my favorite author.

13:21but I'm really, really into John Boyne. I read The Echo Chamber or listened to The Echo Chamber, which I devoured and sleep. Love is a Burning Thing by Nina St. Pierre. And I just, I eat them up. Did you use audiobooks to go about learning about Ann Lee? Did you know anything about her before you began this process of making the film? I, it's funny, like the Testament of Ann Lee used to be called the woman clothed by the sun with the moon at her feet. Oh my God. And I think as Mona was exploring what she had already in post, it became clear that because there was a narrator and this was a testament of her life, a very specific portrayal, specifically designed fable by Mona herself.

14:12It was less about trying to reach her and approach her from the same way I approach everything else, but more in just taking everything that was folded into her story that was made up and designed based on testaments. I just had to believe really happened because I have to fall in love with this person. I have to back myself up. And now that's a bad way of saying it, too. God, it's too early. But I did have much less access to Ann Lee's life, obviously, because she lived 250 years ago. And I think it was such a playful perspective that Mona wrote with, and also a very graphic and human perspective as well at times.

15:02And to balance that was just following Mona's lead. but I did all the extra the other work that's like the technical accent which was the hardest thing and I still don't think I can do it very well and the dancing the movement that is so completely alien to me at first now it's just a part of me and the this the singing from like a human place like finding more of a human groundedness to my voice which I never had to do before I was never asked to do but I think would have been appreciated on all my other musicals yeah I think the whole point of like the shakers worshiped through song and dance so it was never not not going to be a musical but in that knowledge of how movement shaped their devotion and their faith and how you know cleansing it was for them of their sins it had to be second nature and the singing had to be second nature and the only way to do that to really allow yourself to be free in that is to let go of the judgment that you have of your voice or of anything that you're doing which is putting the ego aside to act you know you can't just you can't judge what you're doing when you're doing because then you're not present but with singing I've always been judging myself as I've been doing it so even in Les Mis I wasn't present the way I was yeah so I had to let go of that very early on and the key to that was she is human and I need to feel it like it's not about how it sounds, it's about how it feels.

16:29And I need the audience to become a shaker for two and a half hours. I feel like I became a shaker for two and a half hours. Yeah. And I was riveted by the childbirth scenes and incensed by the many men who left the theater when it showed in Venice. I did not hear about that. I thought that was really one of the most moving parts of the film for me. And that's the thing about Mona is that she's fearless in her endeavor to make any movie, anything that she puts her mind to. She just has the will to climb through the mess of people saying no. But she also is like, well, if I'm making this, I'm going to make it as realistic looking as possible.

17:09The thing that she really irks her about movies and portrayals of that event to be like cleansed in a way that just isn't, it doesn't take you there. And it doesn't make people understand the true nature of being a woman in you know in childbirth and delivery and it's just like it's like life-altering chemically everything emotionally physically could change your body my delivery of my son was an actual nightmare and I'm lucky that I didn't have to go through surgery but um but my spine was was affected in a way that shouldn't have been Yeah, and it's traumatizing. I knew immediately after he shuffled out, the anesthesiologist was like, hey, so listen, the needle punctured the spine.

18:03Oh, my gosh. Because I was, I wasn't, the anesthesiologist didn't get there until a little too late. And I couldn't have had him without the relaxation of my, I mean, he was, he was stuck in my hip. Ooh. and um he's like i just want to like he's punctured so you're gonna feel numb up to your up to you know above your chest and i was like oh i can't feel my boobs this is amazing because i was so happy i was so happy yeah but he was out and then all the hormones everything that was happening it was just because the epidural had worked too well and he's like so i'm gonna have to put a blood patch in your spine it's a it's a little procedure it'll be fine we'll do it, you know, when you wake up later and after you fed a little bit.

18:43And I was just like, great. Yeah. Yeah. I'm done ever giving birth again. I was just so thrilled. And then I woke up again later to the realities of having a puncture in your spine. That's crazy. I mean, I had a similar thing where I had to have an emergency C-section, so they gave me ketamine and I was so happy on this ketamine. I was like in heaven. And then And two hours later, I woke up. I was like, this is horrible. Yeah, I can't imagine waking up and recalling that extra trauma. Because if you've already tried to deliver it, it really is. It is so much more traumatizing than people realize if they haven't been in the room or have done it themselves.

19:31And Mona is like, no, we're showing this. We're going to get the prosthetic. We're going to get the blood. We're going to get the expensive babies, which are the ones that jiggle. Wow. That's an interesting distinction. $10 ,000 for that. Wow. Like a lifelike robot baby. Very, very, very lifelike. And where's this baby now? Like, do you keep them after? No, we give them back. They're very expensive. And we only had$10 million to make this, like, epic tale. Wow. So we just did what we could. And we had incredible actors who were able to portray something that they had never been a part of. And that's what we do when we're acting.

20:08We're portraying things that we've only imagined half the time. So for me, it was just like I just could get there sooner and faster with everybody. And it was just a beautiful communion of like this representation of what we go through like as humans. And it's true that you rarely see it portrayed like that. I mean, unless it's like the pit. Exactly. I think the only other birth scene that I've seen is Pieces of a Woman. I think that feels real. I know that one, but I didn't see it. In part because people kind of warned me off of it because it's so dramatic. I think when you're pregnant, it's worse.

20:42There are certain movies this year that I just know I need to see and can't bring myself to see them because they deal with something that I do not need to be reminded of right now. however it makes us more human just to create stories like that I'm just in awe of Jesse's the one of the our best actors but also just that they're doing I love that story I just there's a lot of movies like that right now and the childbirth scene is included in that if you're and but I also think it was so important also to remember that we're not just showing what it's like we're also honoring new women and men and lose their children during and shortly after childbirth too because that is that is a whole other level of grief yeah and that's what shaped ann lee yeah so there are many reasons to show it but in general if we're going to go there we need to go there yeah i thought it was such a feminist film in that way not in terms of like any political attachment of the word but just in terms of like really showing the effect that such a loss could have on a woman like yeah it could galvanize her to start a new religion because it's so dramatic so i thought it was like one of the more moving elements of the film and you need to earn that kind of levity she has yeah when she finds her purpose again and to mother everyone but it's it's just it's important so when you get to the end you feel you feel that you've gone with her Yeah.

22:18The Run-Through will be back with more from Amanda Seyfried.

22:44biggest prize in Hollywood. There's a hundred wrestlers in the room, but only one can be Oscar nominated. Whether you're a movie lover or an industry buff, Little Gold Men from Vanity Fair has everything you need to know about this year's Oscar race. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.

23:10I want to know about Onset in Budapest because it sounds like it was speaking of this extremely maternal, sororal environment that almost feels like it could only have been created by someone like Mona, who was that open and inclusive. I think inclusive is a great, great word to describe it. The lack of hierarchy on that set was reflected not only how Mona and I like to work in general, but also how Anne Lee designed in the Shaker community. It's like equality for all, doesn't matter your gender or your race, in the 18th century was completely radical. And obviously we know this does work. A community working together and caring for each other, desiring connection like that is what makes us be able to create good things.

24:04The whole set felt like a family. Everybody understood why they were there. Everybody understood that they were getting paid minimum. and everybody was there because they believed in mona's portrayal of ann lee and the story that needed to be told like it was just a bunch of grown-ups and empaths kind of hanging out grown-ups and empaths i love that it was yeah and lots of lots of animals yes how did finn travel to europe i feel like that's a children's book i would like to read you don't want it's a it's a Really ridiculous. I took a private jet, if you really want to know. Well, I'm happy for Finn.

24:42He deserves that. It was more about his frozen meat. Oh, my gosh. Say more. You guys need to explain who Finn is first. Okay, sorry. Everyone knows Finn. Finn is legendary. I have marketed my dog from day one pretty well, I think. But he speaks for himself. He markets himself. He is my 16-and-a-half-year-old dog. So when we shot the movie, he was 15. And he is a great traveler. He's always traveled with me since birth. And I couldn't see myself being away for six weeks without him, including my family because he's included in that. and so we we had to hire i had to i had to pay for a private jet which is not in my best interest financially but it was in his best interest and my emotional best interest because i needed him there and so did the family so we we we traveled him on a private jet with his 80 pounds of frozen dog food and what kind of meat is it it's venison 80 pounds of frozen dog food just food for dogs makes a venison squash diet.

25:50And his diet cannot change. At this age, we cannot afford stomach issue, diarrhea. And so we bought his beef. So we didn't have any issues with that. Traveling a dog commercially is very difficult, especially overseas. And I couldn't get the right paperwork. And so I just bit the bullet. And then I spent the year working for that jet. I also want to know about Mona showing your daughter Mean Girls for the first time. Did you co-sign that? It wasn't Mona. Oh, sorry, not Mona. Mona's daughter. It was Mona's daughter. How old is Mona's daughter? She's 11 now. Okay. But we went to Zurich a couple months ago for a mother-daughter trip because Mona and I had to premiere the film at the Zurich Film Festival.

26:40And so we had never been to Zurich, so we all went, the four of us. And we had a meeting with Searchlight on Zoom, so the girls sat on the bed, the opposite side of the room, and Ada asked if she could show Nina Mean Girls. And I was like, it's not really, I'm sure. And she did, and they watched half of it because it got too late. And then she said that she didn't think it was that funny, but she really loved my role. That was Nina's critique of Mean Girls at age eight. So it'll be a while before they watch The Housemaid. That's for sure. Ada saw The Housemaid. Did she really? Wow. And she loved it.

27:24What was her review? She loved it. Like everyone who's seen it. Very, very excited about it. And she didn't think that the tooth part was as scary as it was for me. And for most people. Yeah. She hasn't gotten to the age where she dreams about her teeth falling out, maybe? Maybe that's what it is. That is a persistent nightmare for a lot of people.

27:49The Run-Thru will be back with more from Amanda Seyfried.

28:03Come see Critics at Large live on February 19th, we're going to be at the 92nd Street Y in New York City for a conversation about Wuthering Heights. There's a new adaptation coming up starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, and we will certainly be getting into that, but we'll also do what we, humbly I'll say, what we do best. Returning to the text, we're going to go deep on the gothic and Emily Bronte. Join me, Vincent Cunningham, and my co-hosts, Alex Schwartz and Nomi Fry, for the discussion. And crucially, if you buy a VIP ticket, you'll join us for an after party too. Go to 92NY.org for more information.