Amanda Seyfried makes a surprising admission: “Only now do I feel like a movie star”

Despite a long career and a rich list of successful films, Amanda Seyfried says she has only recently begun to consider herself a “movie star”.

The 40-year-old actress, who began her career in soap operas before making her big-screen debut with the 2004 hit Mean Girls, went on to star in a series of well-known productions, among them Mamma Mia!, Jennifer’s Body, Letters to Juliet, Les Misérables and Long Bright River.

However, during a conversation held as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 4, Seyfried said that for a long time she had not seen herself as a “movie star”.

Asked whether she had known from the start that Mamma Mia! would turn into a huge success, the actress replied that she had never had that kind of certainty.

“I am really cynical now”, she said, explaining that whenever she takes part in a big studio film — something she says happens rarely these days — she worries about the numbers and the success of the project.

Seyfried also said that over the years she had refused to call herself a “movie star”, as her career has had both busy periods and quieter moments.

“Sometimes I work less, sometimes more. But I always work, thank God. I have had a steady career”, she said.

According to Seyfried, her outlook changed after the success of the film The Housemaid, released in 2025.

“Now I am a movie star”, she said. “It is because of The Housemaid. I thought: ‘All right, nice. Nice. Nice.’”

The film, based on Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel, in which Seyfried stars alongside Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar, proved a major box-office success, generating around $400 million worldwide.

The film’s success was so great that the development of a sequel was announced very quickly.

Seyfried is now appearing in the new film The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, which was presented at the Hamptons Film Festival after having earlier debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In this production, the actress plays a teacher who is in an abusive relationship and who starts a job at a high-security prison. There, she forms a bond with a charismatic prisoner, played by Scoot McNairy.

The film was directed by Tim Blake Nelson and does not yet have an official cinema release date.