Amanda Seyfried has little appetite for Hollywood’s top prize.
In a candid New Yorker profile timed to awards season, the actress shrugged off the idea that winning an Oscar is “important” to her. “No. Do you remember who won in the past 10 years?” she asked.
Seyfried, who earned her first Academy Award nomination in 2021 for Mank, could be in contention again this year for her performance in The Testament of Ann Lee. Nominations will be announced Thursday, Jan. 22.
The Nomination That Matters
While an Oscar would “be great,” Seyfried said, “it isn’t necessary. … I’ve gotten this far without an Oscar. Why would I need one now?”
She emphasized the nomination itself carries weight. “It’s not the win that’s important. It’s the nomination. It does thrust you forward. That’s a fact.”
Her two latest films-The Testament of Ann Lee and The Housemaid-opened the same December weekend. Both projects, she told the magazine, let her prove she can “do hard things” across genres.
Art Without Price Tags
Seyfried, who won an Emmy for Hulu’s The Dropout, said she no longer distinguishes between prestige pictures and mainstream thrillers.
“For me, all of it is art,” she said, comparing her choices in The Housemaid-a low-budget box-office hit-to those in the period drama Ann Lee. “Every single choice I made in that movie was as artful as the choices I made in” the Mona Fastvold-directed film.
Future Plans
The mother of two plans to keep shifting between indie and studio fare. “I finally was able to marry the two in my heart and in my head, and I realized that is what I want for the rest of my career. I’m going to jump between genres as much as I can, and jump between indies and studios.”
Both The Testament of Ann Lee and The Housemaid are in theaters now.
