Vogue Cover Star Amanda Seyfried on Becoming Ann Lee

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Run-Through with Vogue

Episode: Vogue Cover Star Amanda Seyfried on Becoming Ann Lee
Date: January 15, 2026
Hosts: Chloe Malle & Chloe Schama (Vogue U.S. & U.K.)
Guest: Amanda Seyfried

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Episode Overview

The Vogue editors sit down with cover star Amanda Seyfried for a candid conversation fresh off her Golden Globes appearance. The episode dives into Seyfried’s busy awards season, personal style, experiences as a farm owner, the making of her latest film (Testament of Ann Lee), and the complexities of portraying historical figures. The discussion is warm, witty, and intimate, offering a behind-the-scenes look into Seyfried’s life, acting process, and philosophy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Post-Golden Globes Whirlwind & Fashion Choices

• Amanda recounts the fast pace of flying from LA to the Vogue office straight after the Globes and credits her team for keeping her looking fresh.
• Favorite Awards Look:
  • “This was a Bertinati dress that took 400 hours to make.” (Amanda, 03:20)
  • Deep admiration for the atelier’s work: “It was my favorite look… I have to give respect to the seamstress who folded all that silk. It looked like perfection.” (Amanda, 03:30)
• On Working with Stylist Elizabeth Stewart:
  • The process is driven initially by Stewart and the designers, then Amanda: “She’ll come to me with who’s interested… We’ve been wearing a lot of Prada, and we decided to wear Versace, which is always trusted and beautiful.” (Amanda, 04:06)
  • Fun with archival Tiffany jewelry at events—and the stress/security it involves.

2. Awards Season Anecdotes & The Reality of Red Carpet Jewelry

• Stories of logistical chaos with fine jewelry:
  • “My driver and the driver of the necklace who was coming to pick up… were trying to take off this archival piece, and they couldn’t get it.” (Amanda, 06:56)
  • Reflections on the anxiety of handling millions in jewelry and the lack of substitutes: “Why aren’t we wearing fake versions... for relief of stress?” (Amanda, 05:13)

3. Celebrity, Privacy, and Modern Fame

• The impact of pervasive digital surveillance:
  • “I do wonder what it was like back in the ‘90s and the early aughts when people didn’t have cell phones. I was having a conversation with somebody and it was on… Instagram. They're reading your lips. Is that ethical?” (Amanda, 08:04)
  • She acknowledges the tradeoff: “I respect that I gave it away. But there are still moments when I forget people are watching.” (Amanda, 08:38)
  • Favorite party moment: connecting with peers at the A24 Chateau party.

4. Farm Life & Mundane Glamour

• Details of Amanda’s daily 90-minute farm feed for her 52 animals (“the bunny doesn’t take up a lot of time, but it takes up a lot of space.” Amanda, 12:50).
• Emphasizes practical style at home:
  • “Usually if I’m feeding in the morning, the night before I’ll just put on thicker sweatpants to sleep in because I know I’m not going to want to change when I wake up.” (Amanda, 11:21)
  • Audiobooks power the feeding routine, with personal recommendations from recent listens.

5. Portraying Ann Lee: Transformation & Process

• On learning about the historical figure:
  • “It became clear that because there was a narrator and this was a testament of her life… I just had to believe [it] really happened. Because I have to fall in love with this person.” (Amanda, 14:34)
  • Challenges included nailing the accent, the “alien” movement and dancing, and singing from a grounded, ego-free place: “You can’t judge what you’re doing when you’re doing it. With singing, I’ve always been judging myself… Even in Les Mis, I wasn’t present the way I was [for Ann Lee].” (Amanda, 16:35–17:09)
  • The Shaker faith’s devotional song and dance deeply impacted her approach and the emotional tone of the film.

6. Realism in Childbirth Scenes & Challenging Taboos

• The film’s realistic birth scenes polarized Venice festival audiences and led to walkouts:
  • “Mona [director] was like, well, if I’m making this, I’m gonna make it as realistic looking as possible.” (Amanda, 17:42)
  • Amanda’s personal story: “My delivery of my son was an actual nightmare… the needle punctured the spine.” (Amanda, 18:41–18:56)
  • On the importance of these portrayals: “If we’re gonna go there, we need to go there… honoring new women and men that lose their children during and shortly after childbirth, too.” (Amanda, 22:23)
  • The “expensive babies,” i.e., $10,000 lifelike prosthetics for authenticity: “We only had $10 million to make this epic tale… We just did what we could.” (Amanda, 20:40)

7. On-Set Atmosphere & Inclusivity

• Filming in Budapest felt like a supportive commune:
  • “The lack of hierarchy on that set was reflected not only in how Mona and I like to work… but also how Ann Lee designed the Shaker community. Equality for all. Everyone was paid minimum, and everybody was there because they believed in Mona’s story.” (Amanda, 26:22)
  • “The whole set felt like a family. A bunch of grownups and empaths kind of hanging out.” (Amanda, 27:19)

8. Traveling with Family—And Dog

• Heartfelt anecdotes about Amanda’s beloved dog, Finn:
  • “He is my 16 and a half year old dog... I couldn’t see myself being away for six weeks without him. So we had to hire—I had to pay for a private jet…” (Amanda, 27:45)
  • The dog’s needs even influenced logistical decisions: “We traveled him on a private jet with his 80 pounds of frozen dog food.” (Amanda, 28:07)

9. Introducing Iconic Roles to the Next Generation

• Amanda’s daughter and Mona’s daughter watched Mean Girls together for the first time:
  • “She said that she didn’t think it was that funny, but she really loved my role.” (Amanda, 29:56)
  • Mona’s daughter, Ada, has even seen Amanda’s recent film, The Housemaid—“she didn’t think the tooth part was as scary as it was for me.” (Amanda, 30:21)

10. Turning 40, Surprises, and Reflections

• Amanda shares about her 40th birthday party, surprises for her mom, and family dynamics, including humorous fainting incidents at surprise parties:
  • “My 40th was at a roller rink… I played a lot of Backstreet Boys and NSync, a lot of Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter as well, and Britney.” (Amanda, 34:04)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Fashion & Awards Season:
  “I have to give respect to the seamstress who folded all that silk… It was my favorite look.” — Amanda Seyfried (03:30)
• Vulnerability of Public Life:
  “I was having a conversation with somebody and it was on… Instagram. They’re reading your lips. Is that ethical?” — Amanda Seyfried (08:08)
• On Portraying Ann Lee:
  “I just had to believe really happened. Because I have to fall in love with this person.” — Amanda Seyfried (14:35) “You can’t judge what you’re doing when you’re doing it. Cause then you’re not present.” — Amanda Seyfried (16:43)
• On Filmmaking & Motherhood:
  “If we’re gonna go there, we need to go there… honoring new women and men that lose their children during and shortly after childbirth, too.” — Amanda Seyfried (22:23)
• On Set Atmosphere:
  “The lack of hierarchy on that set… mirrored how Ann Lee designed the Shaker community. Equality for all.” — Amanda Seyfried (26:22)
• About her Dog Finn:
  “He speaks for himself, he markets himself.” — Amanda Seyfried (27:45)
• Turning 40:
  “My 40th was at a roller rink. I played a lot of Backstreet Boys, NSync, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and Britney.” — Amanda Seyfried (34:04)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:20 — Golden Globes dress; the art and labor of red carpet fashion
• 06:56 — Jewelry retrieval mishap after awards event
• 08:04 — Reflections on privacy and celebrity in the digital age
• 11:21 — Amanda’s daily farm routine and practical farm fashion
• 14:34 — How Amanda approached playing Ann Lee
• 17:42 — Realism in birth scenes; personal childbirth experiences
• 22:23 — The feminist heart and emotional impact behind Testament of Ann Lee
• 26:22 — Atmosphere on the Budapest set, inclusive spirit
• 27:45 — The lengths Amanda goes to for her dog Finn
• 29:56 — Amanda’s daughter watches Mean Girls for the first time
• 34:04 — Amanda’s 40th birthday roller rink party

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Tone, Language, and Atmosphere

Amanda Seyfried combines casual humor and deep vulnerability as she discusses everything from high-fashion and Hollywood to motherhood and life on the farm. The conversation flows in a warm, collegial tone—reflective, honest, and often playful. The hosts are equally engaged, adding their own anecdotes and insights.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode offers both a glittering peek into awards season life and a grounded exploration of creative work, challenging topics, and personal rituals away from the spotlight. Seyfried’s frankness about privacy, the toll of fame, and the emotional weight of her latest role, as well as her softer, homey sides, shine throughout.

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Please note: Ads, promotional outros, and non-content sections were omitted as per guidelines.

Transcript

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[Chelsea Daniels]

You by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. Foreign. This is the run through. I'm Chloe Mal 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 Seyfried. She came into the Vogue office on Tuesday afternoon straight from the Golden Globes in LA on Sunday night and we were so excited to chat with her. She 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 by but without further ado, here's Amanda sandwiched by two Chloe's. Welcome, Amanda.

[Chloe Mal]

Hi.

[Chloe Shama]

I am welcome ladies.

[Chelsea Daniels]

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 sleeper club that's Vogue wanted to be part of.

[Amanda Seyfried]

We did do the shoot before it came out.

[Stephanie Cariuki]

Yeah.

[Chloe Shama]

Yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

The shoot was right before Thanksgiving, I think.

[Amanda Seyfried]

So it was.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Yeah, it was a month before it came out.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Feels like just yesterday with Eddie Ray.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Ugh. I know. I love that shoot. I think it was so beautiful. I love the fashion Jordan picked.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Oh my God, she's great. And the sun and the winter.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I know.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Landscape was. I mean that's, I don't think he needed to photoshop anything in the background.

[Chloe Shama]

Didn't seem like I.

[Amanda Seyfried]

He might have gotten rid of a cow. But, yeah, we heard about the cow.

[Chloe Shama]

Errant cow that you insisted.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Swear there's a cow there.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Amanda, I want to hear about your whiplash travel. When did you get back from the globes?

[Amanda Seyfried]

I got back last night.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Okay. We're speaking to Amanda on Tuesday morning. I'm very impressed that you were here looking very fresh.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Thank you. Yeah, I feel fresh.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I loved your globes look. This was a bertinati dress that took 400 hours to make.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I was surprised by that.

[Chelsea Daniels]

It was love to see it.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I 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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I loved. It was. For me, it was sort of giving mank. I loved.

[Amanda Seyfried]

It's very old.

[Chelsea Daniels]

It was very old Hollywood. I was a big mank fan. I love that movie.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Thank you.

[Chelsea Daniels]

So what is the plan for the rest of awards season? Dressing. How do you and Elizabeth. Elizabeth Stewart's your stylist. How do you map that out together?

[Amanda Seyfried]

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. 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, or I love Sarah Burton's Givenchy. I would love to. I love to wear one of those. I used to wear Givenchy all the time with Ricardo. 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. And that's been really fun because some of them are archival pieces, which is incredible.

[Chelsea Daniels]

And I wanted to do a story on all the security guards from the jewelry houses who have to be sort of lurking at the awards shows because there's a lot of.

[Chloe Shama]

You ever befriend any of them?

[Amanda Seyfried]

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. Cause, 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? Yeah, 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 eth. And I'm like, okay, well, yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

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.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I mean, you do have it. But I remember someone the other night, this cutie actress was like, 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. Immediately.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Oh, thank God.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Immediately. Because I know she would have it 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, and they couldn't get it. So I had to FaceTime Jordan, Elizabeth's assistant, to tell them how to do it.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Wow.

[Amanda Seyfried]

And then so I was on FaceTime. The driver of the pickup had his phone's flashlight on, and my driver was. His hands were trying to.

[Chloe Shama]

Not in the job description.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Not again. I will never do this again. And then the next day, I was wearing a gorgeous new piece from the blue.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I was also obsessed when you and Julia Roberts wore the Versace jeans. Look at Venice, back to back.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Credit me.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I credit you.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Credit me.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Was that a good idea? Was that your idea?

[Amanda Seyfried]

It wasn't my idea, but, you know, Julia has been working with Elizabeth Stewart forever, and you should just look hot. And I was like, is it still there? Is she still there? It must still be there. And Elizabeth's like, oh, my God, she loves it.

[Chelsea Daniels]

It was a great idea. And it's so rare that people actually have fun with what they're doing. So I was very interested.

[Amanda Seyfried]

We should be recycling these things.

[Chelsea Daniels]

We should be recycling them a lot more.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Incredible looks, too, by Incredibly talented artists in fashion.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I want to know if there was anything that we didn't see at the Golden Globes that was exciting.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I feel like if it wasn't on cable or network cameras, it was on selfie videos. And you can't get away from that. I 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, like, I was having a conversation with somebody and it was on. It's all over Instagram. And I'm just like, they're reading your lips. Is that ethical? But there was. It was right there, though. 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?

[Chelsea Daniels]

Yeah.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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? And 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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I also. It was a big topic in our office, how delighted we were by your comment on Timothy's. 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.

[Chloe Shama]

Like, sorry, clarifying things.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Clarifying. 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 now I know that he's gonna spotlight them, which is fine. But also I think I just. I shouldn't have said it out loud. But it was funny to me. Cause that's first what I thought. Cause I didn't see her there. Yeah, 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 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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

We all were like, oh, what's his foundation for?

[Amanda Seyfried]

But you know what? This is his sign to start a foundation. Yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

So true. Yeah.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I don't care who it's for. I mean, make it about kids, I guess.

[Chelsea Daniels]

You know what?

[Amanda Seyfried]

I'm not going to tell him what to do. He's a smart guy. Yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Ping Pong Foundation.

[Chloe Shama]

Yeah, totally.

[Amanda Seyfried]

For kids. I'm kidding.

[Chloe Mal]

You do you.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Timothy Ping Pong 4 Kids.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Yeah, exactly.

[Chloe Shama]

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.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Around the house. Usually if I'm feeding in the morning, the night before, I'll just put on, like, thicker sweatpants to sleep in because I know that I'm not going to want to change when I wake up.

[Chelsea Daniels]

What time is feeding and who are you feeding?

[Amanda Seyfried]

Nine, nine thirty. I'm not. We're not an early rise. Riser farm. When I'm feeding, I go out, do the. I open up the chickens and the peacocks first. And I'm always wearing those big, tall. 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 summertime, you're working with a lot of water all the time. 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. In 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 how. And there's ducks in the back as well.

[Chloe Shama]

This is a long.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

In what way? What does that mean?

[Amanda Seyfried]

He needs a lot of space.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Like physical space. The bunny needs a lot.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Yeah. Okay.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I thought it was like holding space, like emotional space.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I have not been able to connect emotionally to that bunny yet.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Okay. What's his name?

[Amanda Seyfried]

He's a rescue. His name's Bugsy.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Okay.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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 and need their cat food. Those cats are definitely 37. I don't think they're ever gonna perish.

[Chloe Shama]

What's the total animal count right now?

[Chelsea Daniels]

52.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Cause someone asked me recently. Yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Do you feed with anyone?

[Amanda Seyfried]

I have a caretaker who runs the farm. Cause I'm not there so often.

[Chelsea Daniels]

The kids listen to anything when you're feeding her?

[Amanda Seyfried]

Always audiobooks.

[Chelsea Daniels]

What's your audiobook of the moment right now?

[Amanda Seyfried]

Now it's all different. If the dead belong, here's what I'm doing. And I recently added A Marriage at Sea.

[Chloe Shama]

Oh, that's so good.

[Amanda Seyfried]

The book Sleep by Honor Jones, I just ate up. And the Heart's Invisible Furies by Jon Voine was a long one. And I went on that ride. He's like Franzen to me. Wow. I know that's crazy. Cause Jonathan Franson really is my favorite author. But 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.

[Chloe Shama]

Did you use audiobooks to go about learning about Anne Lee? Did you know anything about her before you began this process of making the film?

[Amanda Seyfried]

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. Specific, like specifically designed fable by Mona herself. It was less about trying to reach her and approach her from the same way, or 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. And to balance, that was just following Mona's lead. But I did all 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 singing from a human place. 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 going to be a musical. But in that knowledge of how movement shaped their devotion and their faith and how 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 judge what you're doing when you're doing it. Cause 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.

[Warby Parker Announcer]

Yeah.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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. It's not about how it sounds, it's about how it feels. And I need the audience to become a shaker for Two and a half hours.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I felt like I became a shaker for two and a half hours.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

And I was riveted by the childbirth scenes and incensed by the many men who left the theater when it showed in Venice.

[Chloe Shama]

I did not hear about that. I thought that was really one of the most moving parts of the film for me.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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 was like, well, if I'm making this, I'm gonna make it as realistic looking as possible. The thing that she really irks her about movies and portrayals of that event, to be, like, cleansed in a way that just isn't. 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 my spine was affected in a way that shouldn't have been.

[Rebecca Ford]

Yeah.

[Amanda Seyfried]

And it's traumatizing. I knew immediately after he shuffled out, the anesthesiologist was like, hey, so listen, the needle punctured the spine.

[Chloe Shama]

Oh, my gosh.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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 stuck in my hip. And he's like, I just want, like, so you're going to feel numb up to your, 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 that he was out and 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 little procedure. It'll be fine. We'll do it when you wake up later. And after you fed a little bit. And 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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

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 two hours later, I woke up. I was like, this is horrible.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Yeah. I can't imagine waking up and recalling that extra, extra trauma. Because if you've already tried to deliver, then 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. And Mona is like, no, we're showing this. We're gonna get the prosthetic, we're gonna get the blood. We're gonna get the expensive babies, which are the ones that jiggle.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Wow. That's an interesting distinction.

[Amanda Seyfried]

$10,000 for that.

[Stephanie Cariuki]

Wow.

[Chloe Shama]

Like a lifelike robot baby.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Very lifelike.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Where is this baby now? Like, do you keep them after?

[Amanda Seyfried]

No, we give them back. They're very expensive. And we only had $10 million to make this, like, epic tale.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Wow.

[Amanda Seyfried]

So we just did what we could, and we had incredible actors who were able to portray something that they. They had never been a part of. And that's what we do when we're acting. We'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 beautiful communion of, like, this representation of what we go through, like, as humans.

[Chelsea Daniels]

And it's true that you rarely see it portrayed like that. I mean, unless it's like, the Pit.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Exactly. I think the only other birth scene that I've seen is Pieces of a Woman, I think that feels.

[Chloe Shama]

But I didn't see it in part because people kind of warned me off of it because it was so dramatic.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I think when you're pregnant, it's worse. There are certain movies this year that I just know I need to see and can't bring myself to see them.

[Chelsea Daniels]

That's how I feel about anything.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Yeah. That deals 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 one of 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. 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 that lose their children during and shortly after childbirth, too. Because that is a whole other level of grief. And that's what shaped Ann Lee. Yeah. So there are many reasons to show it, but in general, if we're gonna go there, we need to go there.

[Chloe Shama]

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 it could galvanize her to start a new religion because it's so dramatic. So I thought it was one of the more moving elements of the film.

[Amanda Seyfried]

And you need to earn that kind of levity she has when she finds her purpose again and to mother everyone. But it's just, it's important. So when you get to the end, you feel that you've gone with her. Yeah.

[Chloe Mal]

Yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

The Run through will be back with more from Amanda Seyfried.

[New Yorker Radio Hour Host]

You come to the New Yorker Radio Hour for conversations that go deeper with people you really want to hear from, whether it's Bruce Springsteen or Questlove or Olivia Rodrigo, Liz Cheney or the godfather of Artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton or some of my extraordinarily well informed colleagues at the New Yorker. So join us every week on the New Yorker Radio Hour. Wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Chloe Mal]

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[Stephanie Cariuki]

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[Chelsea Daniels]

I 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 is that open and inclusive.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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 Ann Lee designed 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. The 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 grownups and empaths kind of hanging out.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Grownups and empaths. I love that.

[Amanda Seyfried]

And Finn came and lots of animals. Yes, he did.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Finn didn't travel to Europe. I feel like that's what children's film is. I would like to read.

[Amanda Seyfried]

You don't want. It's a really ridiculous. I took a private jet if you really want to know.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Well, I'm happy for Finn. He deserves that.

[Amanda Seyfried]

It was more about his frozen meat.

[Chloe Shama]

Oh my gosh.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Say more.

[Chloe Shama]

You guys need to explain who Finn is first.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Okay, sorry. Everyone knows Finn. Finn is legendary.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Wow.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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 had to hire. 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 traveled him on a private jet with his 80 pounds of frozen dog food.

[Chelsea Daniels]

And what kind of meat is it? It's venison.

[Amanda Seyfried]

80 pounds of frozen dog food. Just food for dogs. Makes a venison squash diet. And he can't change his diet cannot change. At this age, we cannot afford stomach issue, diarrhea. And so we brought 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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I also want to know about Mona showing your daughter Mean Girls for the first time. Did you watch? It wasn't Mona.

[Amanda Seyfried]

It wasn't Mona.

[Chloe Mal]

Sorry, not Mona.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Mona's daughter.

[Amanda Seyfried]

It was Mona's daughter.

[Chloe Shama]

How old is Mona's daughter?

[Amanda Seyfried]

She's 11 now. But we went to Zurich a couple months ago as like, for like a mother daughter trip because Mona and I had to premiere the film at the Zurich Film Festival. And so we had never been 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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Sure.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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 8.

[Chloe Shama]

So it'll be a while before they watch the Housemaid, that's for sure.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Ada saw the housemaid.

[Chloe Mal]

Did she really?

[Amanda Seyfried]

Wow.

[Chelsea Daniels]

What was her review?

[Amanda Seyfried]

She loved it.

[Chloe Shama]

Like everyone who's seen it.

[Amanda Seyfried]

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.

[Chloe Mal]

Me too.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Yeah. She hasn't gotten to the age where she dreams about her teeth falling out.

[Chloe Mal]

Maybe.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Maybe that's what it is.

[Chloe Shama]

That is a persistent nightmare for a lot of people.

[Chelsea Daniels]

The Run through will be back with more from Amanda Seyfried.

[Rebecca Ford]

Hi, I'M Rebecca Ford, senior awards correspondent at Vanity Fair and co host of Little Gold Men. Oscar season is upon us. Little Gold Men takes you behind the scenes of the race for the biggest prize in Hollywood.

[Chloe Shama]

There's a hundred wrestlers in the room.

[Chelsea Daniels]

But only one can be Oscar nominated.

[Rebecca Ford]

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.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Oh, I want to ask about turning 40.

[Chloe Mal]

Oh, yeah.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Happy birthday.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Thank you.

[Chloe Shama]

That was a part of Claire's story.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I know.

[Chloe Shama]

We loved all the details of party planning.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Was your mom surprised by your sister surprising her?

[Amanda Seyfried]

My mom? Yes. It was so out of left field for her, which is great to be able to really surprise somebody, it's hard. And I didn't forget that I hadn't told her. So no one had ruined the surprise. My sister woke up because she had gotten there late, meaning she'd gotten there late. So she stayed in the barn so my mom wouldn't see her. Halloween decorations take time to put away. So we still had some, like I said, remnants of the party. And there was a cow hat. So she walked to the house, I walked with her. And she walked through the house and my girlfriend was still there who came up to celebrate with me. And she videoed the whole thing. And I'm walking into the kitchen, my mom's watching some kind of video on her phone about, like birds and like on Instagram. And my sister walks in with the cow head and she goes, moo. And even though Jennifer was in the room as well, my mom thought that maybe the cow was Jennifer.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Is Jennifer your sister?

[Amanda Seyfried]

No, Jennifer's my best friend. Okay. And Jenny's my sister Jennifer. They're both Jennifer. And she takes off the cow head and my mom's just like, I just. I'm so surprised. And we thought for a second she was having a stroke.

[Chloe Mal]

Oh, no.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Because there was just. She was lifeless for a second and it was scary.

[Chelsea Daniels]

I mean, it can be very. I fainted when my mom threw me a seven year old surprise party. I fainted during my 13th. Yes. It's crazy. It was like a surprise party at a haircutting place in la. Temporary and Tipperary.

[Chloe Mal]

Yes.

[Chelsea Daniels]

And I walked in and everyone jumped out and I just like collapsed like a. Cheers.

[Chloe Shama]

Oh, my gosh.

[Chelsea Daniels]

And everyone was like, oh, no.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Shock is shock.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Yes, exactly.

[Amanda Seyfried]

That is so.

[Stephanie Cariuki]

I know.

[Amanda Seyfried]

My God, your mom must have been so scared.

[Chelsea Daniels]

She was mortified.

[Chloe Shama]

Oh, no.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Did you recover?

[Chelsea Daniels]

I did. I bounced back. I got my hair crimped. I got the whole thing.

[Rebecca Ford]

Oh, nice.

[Amanda Seyfried]

I bet everybody was crimping.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Everyone was crimping. Yeah.

[Amanda Seyfried]

God, that is so.

[Chloe Shama]

What was the 13th birthday party that you fainted at?

[Amanda Seyfried]

It was a surprise. My only surprise party I ever had. Cause I hate surprises. And we was in my friend's basement, and I remember wearing a really ugly maroon polo shirt. Ralph Lauren. It was a boys. I was going through that phase. It was.

[Stephanie Cariuki]

Yeah.

[Amanda Seyfried]

Late 90s. God, though it was so. Because my crush was there. And it was after I came, like, came back around, I was very happy. And, you know, we weren't drinking at that point in our lives, so it was just as, you know, run of the mill, sober party. But my 40th was at a roller rink. And that was just. That was so exciting. I played a lot of Backstreet Boys and NSync, a lot of Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter as well, and Britney.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Thank you so much, Amanda.

[Chloe Mal]

Okay, bye.

[Chelsea Daniels]

That's it for our episode with Amanda. All right, listeners, before you go, very important headline for me. I am thrilled to announce that we are launching Vogue's book club. It launches today. We are starting off with one of my most beloved books, Wuthering Heights. This is a real passion project for me. I'm so excited for Emerald Fennell's adaptation of the film to come out. And I have had such a delightful time revisiting this novel that really sort of rocked my world when I read it for the first time in college. And we will be doing guided readings on the Vogue app. We have some fantastic contributors writing essays to accompany our book club reading. And then we are also culminating our book club with a pre screening of the movie and a podcast interview with Emerald Fennell about adapting the book for the screen. So please download the Vogue app today if you don't have it, and grab your copy of Wuthering Heights. I'm also listening to the Audible, which Joanne Froggart reads, and it's really delightful, so I encourage everyone to do one or both. The run through is produced by chelsea daniel, alex depalma and stephanie cariuki. It's engineered by pran bandy and james yost. It is mixed by mike kutchman.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Right now, in movies, in the opera, even in pop music, divinely inspired women are everywhere. This week on Critics at Large, we make our case. Saints are having a moment.

[Chelsea Daniels]

Look, I can spat off any number of cliches, but they're all true. The the world is moving faster and faster. Materialism is now reaching every single corner of the globe. It's very hard to say no and to say stop and to say I will do without. And I think that explains some of the modern cultural appeal.

[Vincent Cunningham]

I'm Vincent Cunningham. Join me and my co hosts on Critics at Large from the New Yorker. Find us every Thursday wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chelsea Daniels]

From.

[Chloe Shama]

Prx.