Hollywood actress Amanda Seyfried dedicated a significant portion of herself to her role in ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’.
The actress revealed that she spent a year preparing for her part in the film, as reported by ‘Female First UK’. The 40-year-old plays the titular spiritual leader in Mona Fastvold’s movie and explained that she began her preparation well ahead of time, particularly since she had only 34 days to shoot the film.
Pressure of Limited Time
When asked if the tight production schedule created pressure, Amanda responded to Collider, “It does, but with Mona Fastvold, she has a collection of the best craftsmen in their field. All the heads of departments will drop everything for her, who were also working on this for a long time with me. We’re working on this for a year prior to Budapest.”
Amanda also mentioned their proactive approach to tackling the time constraints: “We’d already done a workshop, so we shot a bunch of stuff that ends up in the movie in January, before that, in Massachusetts. So I will say yes, 34 days is ridiculous, but because we knew we didn’t have that much time or money, we all, on our days off from other projects, would come together and work on certain aspects.”
Collaboration and Preparation
Reflecting on her preparation, Amanda recalled the countless hours spent collaborating with the crew to ensure she was “ready” by the time filming began. She stated, “For me, I was always working with Tanera Marshall on the Manchester accent because that was a huge hill to climb for me. Celia Rowlson-Hall I was already friends with, so Celia and I were working together upstate in a little studio across from a donut shop. We would do five-hour sessions daily, weekly, when we both had time off.”
Amanda noted her prior collaboration with composer Daniel Blumberg, emphasizing the extensive groundwork laid before filming. “I think I had done my first studio session at our friend’s studio in Brooklyn in December of last year or the year before. So, yes, it was short, but we all gave our energy and time for a year before it because we knew that once we were there, we were going to be strapped for time. So, I did feel kind of ready when we got to Budapest.”
Emotional Depth of the Role
In the film, her character Ann Lee experiences the heartbreak of giving birth four times but losing all of her children. Amanda was determined to depict these scenes authentically. “You see in quick succession her losses. It was really important for Mona and me to show the birth scenes as they are, as they can be, not only to honour Ann Lee, but to honour the millions of people who have lost their children in childbirth and infancy.”
She highlighted the importance of portraying the graphic nature of delivery: “You don’t see that very often, but you need to get down in there with them in order for her to really earn where she ends up going, completely lifting off, levitating into this otherworldly, second-coming-of-Jesus leadership. You have to understand exactly why.”