Amanda Seyfried is struggling to find coherence with America’s current situation. With a compelling accent, she says, “Did we ever think this is where we would be as Americans? No. Because America felt like the best place to be.”
It’s an uncertain moment in a talk that covers a wide range of topics, such as her iconic Thanksgiving pie-baking custom, her towering performance in “The Testament of Ann Lee”, and the surprising ways a historical drama about an 18th-century theologian resonates in America’s fragmented present.
Seyfried is reflecting about what Ann Lee’s utopian vision entails in 2025 while being homesick, missing her children on her farm in rural New York.
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“Thank God we’re talking about Ann Lee so much, because there’s a direct relationship to what she created and what we’re lacking,” Seyfried remarks. “How about we all don’t have any kind of agendas? How about our agenda is take care of each other? Socialism is a gorgeous idea, and I know it doesn’t work perfectly, or that people understand what the word actually means. For me, it’s taking care of each other. If I have more money, I can spend more money on other people.”
Seyfried portrays Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, in Mona Fastvold’s intricately interwoven drama. Ann Lee lost four children and turned her heartbreaking loss into a religious community centred on egalitarianism and communal life. The film is a multifaceted examination of trauma, belief, and the human capacity for survival, which made its Venice Film Festival debut before being acquired by Searchlight Pictures.
Seyfried sees parallels between today’s scenario in the United States and Ann Lee’s group care experience in the 18th century. She recalls seeing something that looked far away in the aftermath of 9/11.
“Everybody dropped everything for each other. People sacrificed their lives without a thought in the world,” she recalls. “And we shouldn’t have to have a meteor or a house-on-fire situation in order to drop everything for each other. That’s just what we are as human beings.”
Her voice swells in a mixture of fury and hope: “We all want to be seen, we all want to be loved, we all want to be desired. We all want to win at things. We all love money. We all love our children. That’s right. Both sides, all sides. So, what is the greed? How does the greed help you? How does the defensiveness help you? How do our egos work against us?”
