Amanda Seyfried On Going Faral to Play Shakers Founder Ann Lee: “I’ve Never Been Let Loose”

Amanda Seyfried Tackled A Tall Task by Stepping Into The Shoes and Strcto Religious Beliefs of Shakeers Founder Ann Lee for Her New Film, The Testament of Ann Lee. The Film’s Writer and CO-Director Mona Fastvold Fielded An Obvios Question Durying Today’s Venice Film Festival Press Conference: WHY AMANDA?

“Amanda has a lot of Power. She’s Really Strong. She is a wonderful Mother. She is a Little Mad,” Fastvold Explained of Her Emmy Award-Winning and Oscar-Nominated Star. “SO, I KNEW THAT She ​​Could Access Those Things, The Kindness, The Gentline, The Tenderness. And She Could Also Access This Power and this Madness.”

The Actress Toplines the Venice Selection Directed by Fastvold from A Script The Filmmaker Co-Wrote with Her The brutalist Partner Brady Corbet. IT CASTSSSSSTSSTSTSITE Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christospher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Jamie Bgyhn, Viola Prettetteteteteteteteejoj. Oscar-Winning Daniel Blumberg, ALSO FROM CORBET’S MONUMENTAL WORK The brutalist.

Described as A “Specialty Retelling,” Seyfried Stars as the Founder of the Radical Religious SECT, The Shakeers. The CULT-LIKE GROUP, WHICH FORMED As An Offshoot of Quakerism in Manchester, England in 1747, Got ITS NAME FROM WORM WORMIP PRACTICES THAT INCLUDED TREMBLING. Lee Espoussed Gender and Social Equality While Believing Herself to be the Female Incarnation of Christist, and Its Members Practiced Celibacy and Communal Living. The Shakeers Ended Up Fleeing to America to Escape Persecution, Ultimately Setting Near Albany, New York, To Build Their Utopia.

In Fastvold’s Film, More Than A Dozen Original Shaker Hymns Are TransFormed Into Ecstatic “Movements” with Choreography from Celia Rowlson-Hall, Who Woorked Wich Corebet Vox lux. Fastvold Said the Shakeers’ Catalog Includes Close to 1,000 Hymns and They “Found The Ones That Felt Like They Bedored” in the Story, Adding That It Was Music. But donk of it as a straightforward song and dance pic Because no one is actually singing dialogue.

“IT’S NOT A Traditional Musical and It’s Not A Traditional Biopic,“ Fastvold Explained. “IT’s A Film with a ton of Music, A Ton of Movement, and It’s About A Historical Figure, But We Don’t Really Know That Much About Her, Really. I Really Had. HARD TO Look at Any Other Musical As A Reference, Honestly, Because I Couldn’t Really Find Anything that Quite Spoke to this. ”

Without any references and with a Support Director, Seyfried Said She Felt Game to Be Completely Free.

“This Did Feel Like An Opportunity Where Were Just No Tethars to Anything,“ The Actress Said at the Press Conference. “Basically, I Follow Mona Into the Light and Anything Goes Because there’s so Much Freedom, and the only Threat is to not Use that Freedom to your advantage as an artist to do. Sounds.

Even Still, Seyfried Admitted that She Told Fastvold, “You Don’T HAVE TO CAST ME.”

“I Kept Saying, ‘Go With Somebody English,’ Because The Accent Seemed SO HARD. THAT WASN’TTTEST START Les misérables and Elizabeth Holmes in The DROPOUT. “But it was just, i saw the love mona had. This was haer baby, and i didn’t want to f it up. But she bee believed in me, and so i believed in me, and here we are.”

Another Journalist Asked Seyfried How’s She Managed to Pull Off What Is An “Intense and Physically Challenge” Role That Requires Lots of Vocal Energy and Unique Sounds. “There Are Many Things I Can Say,” Seyfried Noted Before Praising Fastvold and The Community She Notted On Set that was not unlike what the shakers experienced. “The Reason I Was ABLE TO FASE Challenges As An Artist, WHICH There Were Many as You Say, Was Because and Felt Completely Protected, Held Up and Surround by the Loving Artists The Value of Making this, and Understood Mona’s Vision.

The Press Conference Panel Featured Fastvold, Corbet, Seyfried, Blumberg, Producer Andrew Morrison and Choreographer Rowlson-Hall. At One Point, Corbet Gave A SHOUT-OUT to MORRISON FOR BEING ABLE TO GET The MOVIE MADE FOR “$ 10 Million Bucks,” WHICH HE SAID WAS QUITE A FEAT. “As You Can Imagine, The Elevator Pitch for A Shaker Musical Was Not The Easiest Thing To Get The Ground.” Corbet, who handled Second Unit Directing on the Film, ALSO Noted that He and His Romantic and Professional Partner Insist on the Final Cut for Their Projects.

In her festival Director’s Statement, Fastvold ConfirMed that While She Was Raissed in a Secular Household, Lee’s Prophecies, “However Implausible,” Moved Her DEEPLY. “Not Because I Share Her Faith, But Because and Recognize in Her A Yearning for Justice, Transcentence, and Communal Grace. Her Radical Pursuit of a Self-Fashioned Utopia Heart of All Artistic Endeavor: The Urgent Need to Shape The World Anew. ”

She SAID HER FILM IS OFFERED AS A TRIBUTE TO LEE’S DREAM “AND SILIC THAT NOW SURROUNDS IT.” The testament of Ann Lee HAS ITS World Premiere on Monday Afternoon Inside Sala Grande. The Venice Film Festival Runs Aug. 27-Sept. 6.