Amanda Seyfried Says the Role She Gets Recognized For Most Is "Surprising"

One Emmy award, one Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination later, and Amanda Seyfried is still mostly recognized for one of her OG (albeit most iconic) roles — and no it's not Karen Smith from Mean Girls. In a recent interview with WSJ. Magazine, Seyfried shared that her most well-known film is kind of "surprising."

"It’s Mamma Mia! all the way," she said. "I’m always so surprised at how many people find it to be such a comforting movie. One day, this amazing fan who I’d met years ago had driven really far to come to this launch, and she was like, 'I just needed to tell you that it made it easier to go through the death of my mom.' I was like, 'Oh, my God, thank you, but it wasn’t me.' It was the movie. I hear that a lot: This was the movie that really connected me to my mother."

Seyfried played Sophie in the 2008 film alongside Meryl Streep, who played her mother Donna, and later reprised the role in 2018 in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Of course, Seyfried first got her big break in 2004's Mean Girl as Karen, the self-proclaimed weather clairvoyant. She's since gone on to play Cosette in the film adaptation of Les Misérables, receive an Oscar nomination for her role in Mank, and win the Emmy for her portrayal of disgraced CEO Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu's The Dropout.

Even with her expansive résumé and booked-and-busy lifestyle, the 37-year-old actress still makes sure to spend mornings with her family, her husband Thomas Sadoski, and their kids Nina and Thomas. Of course, Seyfried notes that they are lucky enough to have help around the house primarily from her mother. She says mornings consist of "making sure that everybody has what they want before I go out there."

"To be very clear about my privilege, my mom lives with us, next door," she said. "She helps most of the time when she’s here, she does the getting ready for school for my daughter. And then if my husband’s here, because he’s off working a lot these days, it’s the three of us in the morning."