Amanda Seyfried rode a rocket to fame in the wake of her pitch-perfect performance as Meryl Streep's genetically questing daughter in Mamma Mia! Such rapid elevation would be enough to make anyone feel a little vertiginous, but Seyfried says she's been an anxious person most of her life -- even before she belted out ABBA tunes on the big screen, made an erotic thriller with Atom Egoyan or was named one of the 100 most beautiful people in the world.
"I can instantly make myself feel scared in some way," says Seyfried, sitting in a wingback chair with perfect posture. "Personally, I'm a bit obsessive."
Again, what person working in show business isn't a little preoccupied? Being able to focus intently on a given task is one of the first challenges of moviemaking -- a high-pressure, highly emotional and incredibly time-consuming experience for everyone involved.
Seyfried seems to be stating the obvious, but, in fact, she's describing a clinical condition.
"I have anxiety. It's not generalized. It's more specific to obsessive compulsive anxiety," she says.
"I can talk through it. And I'm working on it, because it definitely is a dent in my life. It means I'm not enjoying a lot of the things I'd really like to be enjoying at this point in my life."
At 24, Seyfried really could be dancing among the daisies with all the bliss youth affords, and fame permits. Since that career-transforming role in the all-star '70s flashback featuring Streep, Seyfried has played opposite Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body, embraced polygamy in Big Love and shared some onscreen sparks with Julianne Moore in Atom Egoyan's latest, Chloe.
A psychological thriller that takes a Jungian route through a Freudian, Fatal-Attraction landscape, Chloe features Seyfried in the title role as a young prostitute who receives a unique proposition from a married physician named Catherine, played by Moore: Catherine asks Chloe to seduce her husband, a professor played by Liam Neeson.
"It's hard to really figure out what I'm saying when I talk about Chloe," says Seyfried, flashing her million-dollar smile. "I come up with things and describe her as vulnerable, because you see all these wonderful qualities about her towards the end. But actually, she's crazy!"
Seyfried laughs with a hint of apology -- as though she didn't really want to spill the beans, but finally had no other option because the character was so compelling. Moreover, it takes nothing away from the narrative ride.
Like all Egoyan movies, Chloe takes place largely below the surface, where human frailty and flooding emotion create the ripples of dramatic texture.
"You never really know what's going on with her. But there are a lot of places where you see this crazy dialogue and a flash in her eyes. That's what I love about the movie, because you're just never quite sure. And that's good storytelling. It's the script, it's the way Atom shot it," she says.
"It's almost funny, because she's made out to be this victim. At certain points, you just want to hug her. And then you realize, wait a minute, she's manipulative and she's going for something here. We don't really know how she's going to get Catherine, or if that's even what she finally wants."
Seyfried says we probably all recognize a bit of Chloe in the people around us, but in the end, we have no real idea who Chloe is, because she's not a person anyone can really relate to.
"She's young and delusional. We can relate to certain situations that's she's in, absolutely. But her whole, where her mind is at, is -- you know, a scene-by-scene thing."
Chloe's enigma is the result of fragmentation, says Seyfried.
"She is a very damaged young woman who is very aware of her sexual power, [because] that's how she learned to take care of herself. It's her whole well-being. It's her way of life," she says.
"She's very well-educated about men and the game of men, and the game of prostitution, and doing it well, so you're always being recommended. It's a high-class game and she's super-good at it. It's her power. But she's also a child and has no idea about love. She has no real concept of it because she never had it in her life."
Seyfried says sharing Egoyan's thoughts about Chloe and the unique tangent of her life voyage is a career highlight, and one of the more special experiences in her 13-year career.
"We'd talk about Chloe at rehearsal, on set, at coffee, at lunch. ... Every time Atom and I were together, even last night [at the film's premiere], we were still talking about it. It was never enough, because there was so much going on every second."
Chloe's enigma is the result of fragmentation, says Seyfried.
"She is a very damaged young woman who is very aware of her sexual power, [because] that's how she learned to take care of herself. It's her whole well-being. It's her way of life," she says.
"She's very well-educated about men and the game of men, and the game of prostitution, and doing it well, so you're always being recommended. It's a high-class game and she's super-good at it. It's her power. But she's also a child and has no idea about love. She has no real concept of it because she never had it in her life."
Seyfried says there's no doubt Chloe is a tragic figure -- whether she knows it or not. The truly sad part of the story is there are many Chloes out there making the same dead-end deals in the real world.
"It's pretty sad. Chloe definitely isn't happy. But it's what she knows. And when this twist happens, and she meets Catherine, it's no surprise she's crazy for her. Catherine is warm and maternal and open-minded and smart. She's all these wonderful things; Chloe can't help but fall in love -- even if she has no idea why."
Seyfried says she found all the rationale she needed to guide her performance through her talks with Egoyan, but also in her own gut.
"Catherine validates Chloe. She asks her about what she does for a living, and how she does it. By asking her to help her out, Chloe feels she's becoming important in Catherine's life and ... it finally feels like she's growing and she's worth more than just her body. And it's really empowering."
Seyfried says she shares no real-life similarities with Chloe herself. She has a great family and excellent support. She's got a full-time beau in Dominic Cooper (An Education, Mamma Mia!) and she's completely thrilled about her career.
But she is afflicted with a condition that demands medication and professional monitoring.
"The thing about OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] is it may well be part of what makes me who I am. A person once told me [that], as much as I may want to be rid of it, it might be a mistake to abandon it completely, because it's a big part of what I do."
Seyfried explains that she can access her OCD to open the door to a certain feeling, or crawl inside the neurosis of a certain character.
"I use my OCD, or the mild form of it that I have, in my work. Acting is instinctual, and so is OCD. They kind of go hand in hand. In a way, it's a wonderful thing for an actor to have, because I can get a feeling and throw it into a scene in a natural way. But it's also debilitating."
Seyfried says she's willing to ride the roller coaster because, intellectually, she knows she's on a good train. She also says she's particularly thankful to Egoyan, because they got to share the Chloe ride together.
"I want Atom to be part of my life. He is very funny and very much someone I can hang around [with] for hours on end. ... I feel there's a familiarity to him. Yet he blows my mind at the same time. I feel like he knows me in a way," says Seyfried, who recently shared the set with Vanessa Redgrave and Gael Garcia Bernal on the forthcoming Letters to Julia.
"I was devastated when we finished, because it was a really complex form of ... I don't know," she says, casting her gaze to the ground for a split-second. "He's a special, one-of-a-kind person. I can't even tell you how grateful I am".
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