Since her breakout role in teen classic Mean Girls, Amanda Seyfried has transformed from teen icon to established actress with leading roles in dramas, musicals, romantic comedies and critically-acclaimed films. To celebrate the release of her latest role in Simon Curtis’ The Art of Racing in the Rain (in cinemas August 9), we’re taking a look back at her best roles and performances to-date.
10. Mean Girls (2004)
Cady Heron, a home-schooled girl joins high school and befriends Damian and Janis who are considered the outcasts of the school but warn her to stay away from The Plastics two of them being Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). The three most popular girls in school and everyone wants to be part of their clique. Karen Smith is the ditzy one in the group, always slightly lost and clueless but insanely pretty. Karen seems to be in the others shadow and in the background, although in the future becomes a weather forecaster due to being able to tell the weather with her breasts.
9. Dear John (2010)
Amanda Seyfried portrays Savannah a college student on summer break who meets a US Army Special, John (Channing Tatum) on summer leave. After spending a short time together, they fall in love. John introduces Savannah to his widowed father and diagnoses him as slightly autistic. After John realises the diagnosis and falls in love with Savannah he agrees to not sign up again for the Army, however 9/11 changes his decision. As Savannah goes back to college after the summer and John is reenlisted due to 9/11 they promise each other that for the next 12 months they will write letters to each other.
8. Jennifer's Body (2009)
Needy Lesnicki a quiet, nerdy and reserved bookworm played by Amanda Seyfried becomes best friends with a confident, arrogant cheerleader Jennifer Check played by Megan Fox. Needy and Jennifer go to a bar and after a fire starts at the bar, Jennifer is abducted by the band. Jennifer’s behaviour starts to change and that’s when fellow male classmates start to go missing and are later found dead with eaten body parts. Needy discovers it is Jennifer committing the murders and tries to keep her boyfriend away from Jennifer.
7. First Reformed (2017)
Reverend Ernst Toller is a solitary parish priest at a small church in New York. The church, now more of a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation. A pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist. Toller is plunged into his own tormented past and finds himself questioning his own future and where redemption might lie. With the pressure on him beginning to grow, he must do everything he can to stop events spiralling out of control.
6. Mamma Mia! (2008)
Based on the 1999 musical of the same name and set on a colourful Greek island, Mamma Mia! celebrates all things ABBA. It follows young bride to be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and her mother Donna (Meryl Steep). Sophie secretly sends wedding invitations to three men from her mother’s past, who could all potentially be her father with the hopes of her real father escorting her down the aisle.
5. Letters To Juliet (2010)
Aspiring writer Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) travels to the beautiful city of Verona, Italy with her busy fiancé. Sophie is left alone to sightsee and visits Casa di Giulietta or Juliet’s House where she meets the ‘Secretaries of Juliet’. They are women who respond to women who have asked Juliet for love advice. Sophie comes across an unanswered letter from 1957 and decides to write to its author Claire (Vanessa Redgrave). Encouraged by Sophie, Claire decides to go out and find her long lost love.
4. Les Misérables (2010)
Based on the 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo, Les Misérables follows the story of several people during the French Revolution. Amanda Seyfried plays Cosette who is the orphaned child of unmarried mother Fantine (Anne Hathaway). Cosette is horribly abused as a child until she is rescued and adopted by Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman). She is raised in a convent and goes on to fall in love with Marius Pontmercy.
3. Lovelace (2013)
Lovelace tracks Linda Lovelace’s life from the age of 20 to the age of 32. Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) is best know for her starring role in Deep Throat, a film from 1972 which is thought to be at the forefront of the Golden Ages of Porn. Following the release of 'Deep Throat' Lovelace went on to become a spokeswoman for sexual freedom and hedonism. Lovelace shows us how Linda was used and abused by the porn industry and her husband and how she came to take control of her own life.
2. Red Riding Hood (2011)
Amanda Seyfried plays Valerie and beautiful young woman who is unable to choose between two men as she is in love with both of them, one being an poor outsider called Peter and the other wealthy man Henry who her parents have arranged for her to marry. However, Peter and Valerie plan to run away together, but as their village is surrounded by forest that houses a werewolf they’re unable to find a way out. Valerie’s older sister is killed by the beast and now the village are on the hunt to find the werewolf. The village soon discovers that the werewolf takes form as a human during the day and everyone becomes a suspect especially Valarie’s lovers Peter and Henry.
1. The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)
Milo Ventimiglia stars as Denny, a race car driver who is devoted to his witty, wise almost human dog, Enzo. More than a pet, Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner) is Denny’s best friend. Denny meets Eve, a teacher played by Amanda Seyfried; they fall in love, marry and have a baby. With support from Eve and Enzo, Denny learns how to navigate family life, even in times of crisis, using the lessons he’s learned on the racetrack. Moving, exciting and at times very funny, the film is told from Enzo’s perspective, with the dog’s unique insights into the complexities of family life and the human condition.
The Art of Racing in the Rain comes to cinemas in the UK on August 9.
Tagged in Amanda Seyfried