It’s an exciting day at Amanda Seyfried’s house: the special emu fence is going up.
Home for the actor is a farm in upstate New York where she cares after numerous animals, from goats and donkeys to peacocks and, in a matter of days, emus. Who, by the way, require a specific fence of seven-to-nine feet high to overcome their vertical leap.
The seasonal shift has arrived on her property, and she’s doing some prepping for winter (and planning her annual Halloween party).
“It’s just making sure that we’re keeping everything as consistent as possible as the weather changes for the animals. I don’t know — it seems so intuitive and it doesn’t feel to me like it’s a lot of work,” Seyfried says from the farm. “Nature takes ownership of its transition.”
The 40-year-old is spending much of her time at home these days, letting her recent projects roll out and awaiting what’s next, save for the odd Tiffany campaign or festival appearance. She’s prioritizing time with her two children, a return to music and a clear focus of what motivates her (good writing, yes, producing not so much). She’s also in the most talked-about film of the moment, Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything,” where she takes on a surprise role as both herself and Holmes, revisiting her portrayal of the Theranos founder from the 2022 Hulu show “The Dropout” (this interview was conducted prior to the documentary’s release). The film became a box-office sensation over the weekend when it opened in limited theaters, and is already garnering Oscar chatter.
Earlier this month, prior to the “You Can See Everything” reveal, Seyfried was at the Hamptons Film Festival with her new indie movie “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” which is currently making the festival rounds. The film, written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson, follows a woman in an abusive marriage who takes a job at a maximum security prison where she falls for a charismatic inmate, played by Scoot McNairy.
“Because of streamers and because of rules and because of some amount of political correctness, I feel like people are shying away from talking about things in such a realistic way that can be construed as political when it’s really not. And I think this movie just stands apart in being a brave big swing for everyone involved,” Seyfried says of the project. “And I think it’s really important. It’s hard to process and it definitely stays with you in a way that can be scary, but that’s why we make these films, because it’s important to really understand the depths of what other people are going through. I mean, comedy’s great. I love comedy too. It’s another way in, but sometimes you’ve got to get as gritty as things are in real life and not shy away from it.”
Seyfried was away from her children for the six-week shoot in Georgia last year and was surrounded by her team, who are close friends, which allowed her to feel “protected” as she worked on scenes of both physical and sexual abuse.
“I have certain methods of releasing things immediately through years of therapy. I think even though I know the reality of people’s lives and that we’re shooting it as realistically as possible, it’s not real. And so I have that privilege of walking away from it,” she says. “But I do gravitate toward telling stories like this because I think I can handle it now at this point in my life.”
The latter half of 2025 brought both box office success and critical achievement for Seyfried. Her most ambitious role to date, leading Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee,” earned her a Golden Globe nomination and much acclaim, while Paul Feig’s “The Housemaid” made more than $400 million worldwide.
“I was walking on air,” Seyfried says of the success of “The Housemaid,” which costarred Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar. “You don’t ever have expectations of how a movie’s going to be received, ever. The school of thought I have is ‘keep your expectations low,’ for the most part, when it comes to this kind of stuff that you can’t control.”
She signed on to the film without having looked at the script because it was Paul Feig, and knew it was a good movie no matter what, but credits the marketing team at Lionsgate with getting the movie the eyeballs it did.
“Syd and I were obviously very game to do all the content stuff, which is really what works. But at the end of the day, it is about marketing. You do have to spend a lot of time with that stuff, but if it’s not a good product, it still will fizzle,” she says. “And our movie was just a really good movie.”
The second book in the Freida McFadden series has been greenlit for a screen adaptation, which Seyfried’s character is not in, but she plans to visit the cast on set and is cheering them along.
“It was really good for me, career-wise,” Seyfried says of the movie. “It was really good to have that kind of box office power behind me again, because it doesn’t matter how much work you’ve done or how much good work you’ve done, when it comes to TV and certain studio movies, there’s still this weird math behind each of people’s names that you can’t really outrun,” she says.
When asked if she finds the reliance on modern marketing campaigns frustrating or simply a part of the job, Seyfried says it’s a bit of both. She’s understanding of the realities of the current industry, but wishes Hollywood played it less safe.
“I can still be discerning at this point in my career, which is a privilege for sure. But I do find it very frustrating that certain things get made and other things don’t,” she says. “I think the business has completely turned its back on anything political, for the worse. I’ve been trying to get a documentary sold for a while now that’s a really, really well-made documentary about women’s health and abortion rights, and every single place we went to was like, ‘This is important, but we can’t be political.’”
“But I think their definition of safe is not really my definition of safe,” Seyfried adds. “These stories need to be told. Documentaries are as important as anything. And that’s what’s frustrating because as an artist, I can do these cool things, these cool projects, and especially when it’s an indie, like Tim’s movie, we don’t have to be scared of any studio.
“I mean, right now we’re trying to sell it, and I think a handful of people have already said it sits in a place that’s hard to support,” she explains. “And it is kind of insane. There’s an obvious difference between the artists and the business people, and there are also a lot of great people in between. My best friend runs Amazon TV now, and he’s a real artist, but he also runs s–t. And I’m like, ‘People like Peter [Friedlander] need to be in control of these things.’ It gives me hope.”
Looking ahead, Seyfried has other films shot over the past few years ready to stream out, including the animated Netflix movie “Steps,” a retelling of Cinderella, and “Octet,” the much-anticipated Lin-Manuel Miranda movie musical alongside Rachel Zegler, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jonathan Groff and more. In recent days, her surprise appearance in the Nathan Fielder doc “You Can See Everything” was revealed, reprising her role as Elizabeth Holmes.
When it comes to guiding the next project she’ll sign on for, geography is playing a huge role in the decision-making process.
“Things that shoot in New York, in New Jersey — that’s very important,” she says. “If it’s shooting in Spain, we’re not going to do it, because right now, the kids are a specific age, and my ex-husband’s working, and I just want us all to be within the neighborhood of each other to keep things feeling safe and cozy. [Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski announced their separation last month]. It definitely, definitely filters a lot for sure.”
That said, Seyfried will make an exception when the project entices.
“The ‘Jennifer’s Body’ sequel is definitely on my calendar for next year because I love that team,” she says. “It was such a special experience, and I think we have a good shot at making something just as special.”
“Jennifer’s Body” is one of a handful of modern cult-classics Seyfried has starred in, including “Mean Girls” and the “Mamma Mia!” franchise.
“It’s not that I chose those projects — those projects chose me when I was younger, and I just feel lucky that they meant something,” Seyfried says. “I don’t go around thinking, ‘Oh, I want a legacy,’ but maybe that’s because I already have one in a way. I was part of these moments, the things that people keep going back to in a way that I didn’t expect and still surprises me, but I can also appreciate why they hit so much, because I have those too from when I was a kid and how they shaped that moment in my life. And to be a part of helping shape someone’s moments or help them shape choices that they made or artistic choices or life choices that they made because of that movie, it’s powerful.
“It keeps reminding me that what I’m doing is purposeful,” she adds. “Even if I make a movie that nobody sees, it’s not just about making things for other people, it’s making them for myself, but it’s to have the ability for that to transcend your own experience into somebody else’s. It’s cool, especially when there’s some positive reinforcement or there’s some inspiration to be had from these movies.”
Seyfried has a number of producer credits under her name, including for “The Housemaid,” “The Dropout” and “Long Bright River,” but it’s far from her focus.
“I actually really don’t like it,” she says. “I like to have opinions, but usually if I’m the first or second lead, I’m usually tight enough with the producing team where I’m like, ‘Oh, can I offer an idea or something?’ Right now, the producing credits are really just a vanity plate…sometimes I have produced things and felt like a part of it, and then others I’m just like, ‘What am I doing?’”
diamond necklaces and rings; Sixteen Stone by Tiffany & Co. platinum, yellow gold and
diamond earrings and rings. Sam Nixon/WWD
What is a passion is music. In addition to starring in “Octet,” which she says was one of her most favorite shooting experiences, Seyfried recently has been posting videos of her playing the dulcimer, which she returned to ahead of a Joni Mitchell tribute concert earlier this month.
“It makes me feel empowered, especially when I’m in unhappier spaces where I don’t feel like I have a lot of control, it makes me feel control,” she says of her relationship to music. “Music is definitely…if you’re raw, it’s almost too dangerous for me to pay attention to it. I know my kids really like when I play, and so I’m trying to make an effort to find some inspiration in that, but…it’s a really intimate thing to play music, and sometimes my heart can’t handle it.”
It’s obvious that at this point in her career, which began in her teens, Seyfried has learned to speak from the heart, from her work to her red carpet style. She has worked with stylist Elizabeth Stewart for “god knows how long” and has developed a shorthand for what works and what doesn’t, from jewelry to clothes.
“If I like the look of something on somebody and it’s something within the realm of possibility for me and my body and what I feel comfortable in, then I’ll give it a go because I do appreciate fashion in a way that I probably didn’t for a while,” Seyfried says. “I know what I’m comfortable in. I know the limits that my boobs have at this point in my life, and it’s still kind of fun. I’m super attached to certain Tiffany things that I wear now, and I have a hard time giving them back. But that’s what’s so great about this relationship is that actually working with them, and I’m going to use the word again, it’s a privilege to be able to wear these designs.”
The actor’s more formalized relationship with Tiffany came after several years of wearing their pieces for red carpets and meeting the team again and again in the process.
“The idea of doing a campaign with them was always very interesting to me, but it’s hard to get the spot,” Seyfried says. “And then obviously, when I found out that they had wanted to sign me for this more committed campaign with them, I jumped up and down.”
Seyfried is the brand’s latest ambassador, and on the Oct. 28 will be seen in their holiday campaign, a film called “You & Me.”
“That’s the thing about jewelry for me — it’s always been about what my grandmother has given me or what my grandmother has given my mother and who’s given to me,” she says. “And so it is kind of like a legacy thing. And that’s how I think about jewelry too. Every time I buy something, I imagine it on my daughter or my son.”
The first step is convincing her 9-year-old daughter, Nina, that the earrings are worth a bit of pain.
“[Tiffany] gifted me these earrings and I’m like ‘[I wont’] let them out of my sight now. These are heirlooms.’ My daughter’s going to wear them,” she says. “I keep begging her to get her ears pierced.”
The earrings do come off generally on the farm, because as much as Seyfried is the embodiment of modern-day Hollywood star, she’s also extremely grounded in reality.
“I did my ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ thing here at the farm and I had makeup on and then I was outside and I was joking about how none of the animals recognize me because I was in makeup,” Seyfried says. “But it’s funny to have that dichotomy of my glamorous life, which I do have a glamorous life.
“And then there’s the rest of my life, which is home, and it’s interesting and I love that because it makes me feel like I can do it all in a way that it would’ve been hard to picture when I was younger,” she continues. “I can have both and be present in both equally, which is always a good reminder. It definitely brings me to my knees.”
