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Amanda Seyfried is renowned for her versatility as a performer, moving seamlessly between musicals, comedies, and intense dramas.
The 40-year-old American actress has captivated audiences with her singing performances in Les Misérables and the Mamma Mia! films, as well as her Emmy Award–winning portrayal of tech fraudster Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout.
Her latest film, The Testament Of Ann Lee, sees her portray the devout 18th-century missionary Ann Lee, founder of the Shaker religious sect.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Mona Fastvold, the film traces Ann Lee’s journey from her impoverished beginnings in pre-industrial Manchester, through the devastating loss of her four children in infancy, to her voyage to New England to spread her radical message.
The musical biopic also stars Lewis Pullman as Ann’s brother William, and Christopher Abbott as her oppressive husband, Abraham.
The film depicts several graphic childbirth scenes, which Seyfried was determined not to shy away from.
“Mona and I have never seen a birthing scene that felt real, except in Pieces Of A Woman, which was pretty great,” she explains. “We both agreed that we were going to get pretty graphic because we could, and because we needed to.”
“We needed to honour her story and honour the stories of everybody who’s lost their children in childbirth or in infancy.”
She adds: “It’s a fact that this happens, and it’s devastating. It’s the darkest thing that could happen to somebody. And that’s her origin story.
“Ann Lee was always a God-fearing young woman who was curious about religion. She had some darkness, and then real, intense trauma.
“How can anyone pick themselves up after that? We really learn about her journey and how far she had to go to raise her consciousness and she did.”
Seyfried says it was liberating to film those scenes.
“There’s a lot of suffering, a lot of exploration, but it was amazing to be able to shoot those scenes. It felt very liberating because we knew there was nothing we weren’t going to cover,” she explains.
“It was all there. We had the prosthetics, fake blood, dummy babies, as they say in the UK, we had everything because we weren’t shying away from anything.
“It’s so liberating. There were no rules at that point because we’re showing humanity, and it was essential to this particular story.
“It felt so empowering, and as an actor, I needed to experience that because I’ve been there, and I wanted to portray it as realistically as possible.”
Fastvold, 44, who co-wrote the film with her partner Brady Corbet, says she is often shocked by how childbirth is typically portrayed on screen.
“It’s shocking to see childbirth portrayed in a glossy way,” says the Norwegian filmmaker.
“It’s not shocking for me to portray childbirth realistically. We see people get their heads blown off and cut open on television all the time, yet for some reason, the most natural thing in the world is still portrayed as, ‘Oh, here comes a clean baby from under a sheet with no umbilical cord.’”
Fastvold and Corbet are frequent collaborators, having co-written the Oscar-nominated film The Brutalist and The Childhood Of A Leader.
Fastvold explains that the screenplay for The Testament Of Ann Lee was written after The Brutalist screenplay but production was delayed until after the COVID-19 pandemic due to the film’s intimate and physically crowded production requirements.
“It was after we had written the screenplay for The Brutalist, but before we shot it, because it took a long time to make that film,” she says.
“It was while I was in post-production on The World To Come, and we were trying to put together The Brutalist, that we wrote The Testament Of Ann Lee.
“I could not conceive of making this film during COVID. It felt impossible, because I knew I would need to have 200 dancers literally breathing on each other. I thought that on day one we would be shut down.”
“I waited until we were on the other side of it a little before I started putting it together, though we still had work in progress at the tail end.”
Fastvold says she became fascinated by Ann Lee’s story and was surprised no one had previously told it.
“She has been completely overlooked by history. Here was a woman leading a different kind of church, espousing radical ideas while preaching tenderness and kindness toward others.”
Ann Lee is portrayed in the film through interpretation rather than strict biography, since Lee left no written records of her own.
“It’s an interpretation because she didn’t write anything down. It’s all speculative,” says Fastvold.
“Some of it is based on public records, some on historical documents, and most on statements from her followers.
“There are contradicting facts and stories throughout. I gathered all the information I could and learned as much as possible, and from there, you write on intuition.
“What spoke to me most was the epic nature of her story, how grand it was, and how radical her ideas were around community and equality. Ideas about empathy, equality, and community are not modern; they have always existed.
“It’s easy to think society lacked empathy in the past, but that’s not true. It’s important to draw a line between her and the importance of feminist leaders in history who have been overlooked. We stand on their shoulders. This is not a modern story.”
The film has a musical element, featuring more than a dozen traditional Shaker hymns reimagined as rapturous choreographed movements.
Seyfried, an experienced singer, says she loved using her musical and dance skills in this film.
“It enhances my own experience as an artist and enhances my presence,” she explains.
“It’s so rare to be able to express yourself through movement and vocalisation, usually it’s just dialogue.
“I find it to be such a rare opportunity that I absorb every second of that experience. It takes me a little deeper.
“It really does, like how a sad song can help you feel emotion, it was electrifying.”
The Testament Of Ann Lee is in UK cinemas from Friday, February 27.
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