Name: Amanda Seyfried
Birthdate: December 3, 1985
Birthplace: Allentown, Pennsylvania
Claim to fame: While her role in Mean Girls is what put her on the Hollywood map, her starring role in the HBO drama series Big Love, as well as her subsequent starring role alongside Meryl Streep in 2008’s Mamma Mia, is what really brought her to audiences’ attention.
What we can see her in next: Her latest movie While We’re Young releases in theatres on March 27, which sees her star opposite Adam Driver, Ben Stiller, and Naomi Watts in a comedy about a middle-aged couple (Stiller and Watts) whose career and marriage is overturned when a disarming young couple (Driver and Seyfried) enter their lives.
Interesting fact: She initially auditioned for the lead roles of Regina and Cady in Mean Girls (which were played by Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan), but the producers decided she was best suited for the role of Karen.
Best quote: “Hollywood is just like high school: The popular people love the other popular people. And the thing is, some people aren’t nice. Or they are nice, but only to your face, not elsewhere.”
Why we love her: I’ll never forget the first time I saw Amanda Seyfried on-screen — she was starring with a blank face toward the sky, breasts thrusted outwards, trying to summon the sun to shine on her breasts and help her predict the weather. Remember that? Yeah it was in the movie Mean Girls and the most redeeming quality of her character was that her breasts could supposedly predict the weather. While it wasn’t the most interesting role she’s ever played, it was the one that put her on the Hollywood map — because ever since Seyfried played the breast weather forecaster ever, she’s been a hot piece of talent who seems to be able to do it all.
While Seyfried hit the map with Mean Girls, it would be her starring role a few years later on the HBO drama series Big Love where she really started to make a name for herself. A starring role opposite Meryl Streep followed in the film-adaption of the musical Mamma Mia, which presented the first opportunity for her to sing for a role (she grew up taking singing lessons) and establish herself as a capable double-threat.
Seyfried has definitely established herself as a successful romantic comedy lead with her roles in Dear John and Letters to Juliet (which she claims she enjoys because of her romantic nature and love for disappearing into the romantic lives of the characters she plays). But that seems to be the trajectory with most actors, isn’t it? They get a big break with a successful TV show, prove their acting chops and gain popularity amongst audiences. They then transition their success on TV to roles in romantic comedies, and then once they outgrow the romantic comedies, they start to take on more challenging “actor” roles. But I guess that’s just the game you have to play in Hollywood. But Seyfried has sure played it well, as her most interesting work has come in the last few years — with her singing-acting role in Les Miserables, as well as her role channeling porn star Linda Lovelace in the film, Lovelace, in which she received critical acclaim for.
Amanda Seyfried is our WCW this week because she’s young, beautiful, and multi-talented. And at least for the time being, I think it’s safe to say, she won’t have to accept a role where her breasts are smarter than she is.
You can catch Seyfried’s latest movie While We’re Young, in theatres on March 27.
