"Our Favorite Mean Girl is Now Our New Crazy Girl"

Amanda Seyfried has become one of Hollywood's latest rising stars. She has slowly evolved as she has heightened her profile from being Plastic, Karen Smith, in Mean Girls to bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan in the film adaptation of the Abba musical Mamma Mia

Seyfried appeared earlier this year with a lead role in the film version of Nicholas Sparks's Dear John and recently said goodbye to her role of four years as sullen Mormon daughter Sarah Hendrickson on the hit HBO TV drama Big Love. Now the 24 year-old is preparing to come out in a big way with a role as the title character in the erotic thriller Chloe.

Chloe is an escort hired by Catherine Stewart, played by Julianne Moore, when she suspects her husband David, played by Liam Neeson, of being unfaithful. Amanda claims the ins and outs that come with the lifestyle of being an escort did not surprise her that much.

"I don't think anything surprises me anymore," she says, "I think it's just because I've watched a lot of movies and I've lived in big cities since I was 17, which is to say I've been more consistently sickened by the world as well and by how far people can go and by what they do for money or for any way. But I can go into a whole other story on that. I didn't speak to them, but [director] Atom [Egoyan] certainly did. He did that part of the journey for me."

"Atom's very descriptive and he's very able to get what he wants out of people in a very honest way," Seyfried adds, "And I think he had some open conversations with a few three woman about what they do, why they do it and how they feel about life and things like that. And he had long discussions with them and I think it was really empowering for him as a director and he'd relay. We talked a lot, Atom and

"Our Favorite Mean Girl is Now Our New Crazy Girl"

I. That's how I know Chloe. It's more through the discussion and arguments we'd have about why she'd be doing one thing or the next and what she's actually feeling through certain moments and when to get vulnerable and when to stay strong. I don't know, it's just complex."

Seyfried describes how Chloe slowly embeds herself into the lives of Catherine and her family.

"She just literally comes in, sweeps in, and leaves traces of herself behind," Amanda describes, "And it was kind of a fairy tale at one point, it feels like. I guess you can argue that she is part of a fairy tale when she comes and just throws everything upside down and kind of saves the kingdom in a way. It's a beautiful way to look at it."

However, Amanda is quick to point out that Chloe's method to her madness is more nuanced than your typical erotic thriller vixen.

"I can tell you a little bit about the reality behind her," Seyfried says, "She was kicked out into the street when she was 14. It was part of the script before, but it got cut was her mother literally kicked her out with some money and said to never come back. And to be told that at 14, I just can't imagine the damage that can cause someone. Also, the father figure was never spoken about and we assumed that the father figure was never around, that she never really had anybody."

"It's probably why she finds it so easy to have so much control," she continues, "To me, that's why she does what she does, because, literally, the only control she has over her life over men with her body and her sexual power. She's damaged. She's clearly damaged. She's a little bit sick, I would argue, but never to a point where it feels dangerous, not even to the end."

While Seyfried says she is immensely proud of how Chloe was a big bold

"Our Favorite Mean Girl is Now Our New Crazy Girl"

departure from the characters she usually tends to play, she says the role was one she's not completely comfortable with displaying to her family at the film's premiere.

"My mom, she could see whatever she pleases, but I actually had given my father strict rules to not come," Amanda states, "He would normally come to my premiere, but I'm just not comfortable with that. I think if he ever does see it, he's just going to have to see it in clips, because I just"¦a lot of the most obvious reasons that I can't, I just don't want to share it with him. But my mom and my sister are coming and that's enough, I think. I sat next to my mother at the Toronto Film Festival and I didn't know what to do with my hands when the scene was on."

"I usually cover my eyes when I'm doing something questionable," she adds, "It's really awkward. I can never really wrap my head around how I'm supposed to behave or what I'm supposed to feel with that. But it's nice, it's fun to finally be sexy. I'm very disconnected with the sensual side of me. I know it's in me, but it doesn't really reveal itself often in my personal life, which I do find problematic and I am working through, but this has definitely helped me find that side of me because it was necessary. I was playing a character, I have to."

However, despite the heavy risqué nature of Chloe, Amanda says the love scene that involves her and co-star Julianne Moore was one of the highlights of the film in it how it portrays the lesbian affair between Chloe and Catherine.

"We had no idea what Atom wanted and we trusted him, but it was still really scary," Seyfried recalls, "And the day before we did that one love scene, we had it choreographed with the two stand-ins. And then, I understood that it would

"Our Favorite Mean Girl is Now Our New Crazy Girl"

be a slow-moving kind of delicate piece and it was."

"It turned out to be that," she continues, "It was also very revealing, it's not a PG scene, it's real, it's realistic, it doesn't cut off right when it's about to explode, like everything else does, that's why it's so wonderful to work with Atom because he does it so tastefully."

Contrary to what one would tend to normally react doing the filming of something so intimate, Seyfried says she did not push herself to do it by using alcohol.

"Usually I would," she admits, "Honestly, I'm no stranger to heading that way if it's something that's going to be a fun scene if I have to be intimate for and for something short and quick, like, usually, at the end of the night. It depends on when the scene takes place, during your shooting day."

"Then, maybe I can have a drink or something, which is always fun, but this is something that we were working on for hours and we were doing it during the day and how do we focus?" Amanda adds, "There's a lot going on in that scene and it's really important for the audience to see it all because there's people making love and they're in two different places and they want two different things and they're experiencing two different things. It's like the audience has to feel that, push and pull, it's really amazing."

However, Amanda says that the support of Egoyen did not prevent doing a lesbian love scene from being difficult for her.

"I don't know why it's so difficult," she says, "I guess I'm just not used to the feminine world and it has a whole different dynamic. And I think because Chloe is in more control of the situation, she's taking care of the situation, I had to feel very confident because it's all acting, clearly. I don't know why it's harder. I mean I am not used to

"Our Favorite Mean Girl is Now Our New Crazy Girl"

it, but it's also really difficult to do with men, too. It's hard in general."

Seyfried says that her confidence in the film and her performance was bolstered by the approach of the film's director, Atom Egoyen, whose previous works include films like Speaking Parts, Exotica, Felicia's Journey, and Where The Truth Lies. She discussed for us Egoyen's process in shaping Chloe.

"He's really, really specific and he tries everything," Amanda says of him, "But the most important thing about him is that he knows what he wants. He knows what he's going for before he even steps in the room. I mean he knows what he feels he needs and he knows the characters so well. So if you know your character and the director knows your character, then if you have any questions, you just say, 'Well, what do you think she would be doing?' And two people versus one, sometimes don't you wish there was two of yourself to ask questions to, about if you were feeling confused about something. God, he's so passionate about his stories. Whether he writes it or he's directing it, there was a clear reason he wanted to do it."

"He loves eroticism and the human connection," she continues, "He loves studying that, the undercurrents of relationships, between men and women, women and women. It's so fascinating to him. He gets it and he still wants to know more and he's still exploring it, which is crazy. You could talk to him and he's still sitting there thinking, exploring and that's why he's so wonderful because it's all in him. You can just pull things out from moment to moment and he's so clear, he's so clear what he wants. I don't think I really know if I'd do a role like this without somebody like him because I don't think I can do it alone. Clearly, I think most of it's him and, obviously, I understood him. We

"Our Favorite Mean Girl is Now Our New Crazy Girl"

had a great understanding, but he's really specific."

Amanda believes that what sets apart Chloe from other films of its type is that it's more focused on the human elements of love and sex rather than merely just the physical, more titillating ones.

"I just thought there are no labels in this movie," she describes, "I feel like it's just human, human connection, that's it, that's what it is, it's that basic. There's a structure. And I think hat's what I think is so beautiful about it, that Chloe is looking for love in any form. And if Catherine came and if it was with a man and she felt, obviously, it was more"¦"

"I think the reason she was attracted to Catherine is because she has a very strong maternal quality as well, which is what she was clearly missing," Seyfried adds, "And that has everything to do with it, but I don't think she ever thought twice about the fact that Catherine was a woman and that's why I love it, that that doesn't even exist in this world. I don't think it should exist, but it does still and I think society is still getting used to it. I think it's not going to matter one day and it's going to be just one giant pot."

Amanda says the emotional underpinning of Catherine and Chloe's affair is made known during the film's final scene, where Catherine finds Chloe's hairpin.

"I'm pretty sure it's that this is part of Chloe and she appreciates Chloe for what she actually did do to Catherine in her life," she says, "She was kind of a saint in a way. In the beginning, you don't see that at all, but by the end, hopefully, the audience kind of falls in love with her in a way and appreciate her in a way. So when you see Catherine turn around, you see that hairpin, it's supposed to symbolize that Chloe is very

"Our Favorite Mean Girl is Now Our New Crazy Girl"

much alive within them, that she's their little secret and no one will ever know."
>[?
While Seyfried sees Chloe as another step in an ever-continually rising star for the actress, she is still careful not to get caught up in the insular bubble that tends to emerge with increasing fame.

"I can see it going bad down the road if I made the wrong decisions," she believes, "Definitely, I'm in a moment, but that's what I keep saying, it's like a moment lasts a moment, so you can't really take it for granted."

"You have to take advantage of it and use it because I'm getting so many more opportunities because I'm on magazine covers and it's exciting to see your face, like people buying them," she continues, "It's exciting. It's a very positive experience. It doesn't really affect my personal life that much."