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Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Stefania Sarrubba
Amanda Seyfried has revealed the unexpected prosthetics she used to film Mona Fastvold's acclaimed musical biopic, The Testament of Ann Lee.
The Mean Girls star gives a powerhouse performance as the titular historical figure, a preacher and the leader of the Shakers, a Christian sect which Lee founded in 1747 England.
Fastvold's film, which she co-wrote with partner and filmmaker Brady Corbet, premiered at Venice International Film Festival last September, earning positive reviews for Seyfried's turn as Lee as well as the raw, uncompromising portrayal of a female figure we still know so little about.
The Testament of Ann Lee doesn't shy away from being explicit, including many a sex scene and some sequences where Ann appears nude. As Seyfried recently explained, Fastvold's biopic 'needed to be graphic', an approach which led the celebrity to wear an unusual prosthetic.
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"This movie, it needed to be graphic," the star said of the film during an appearance on BBC Radio 2. "So, like, I had a prosthetic butthole."
Seyfried, who also gave up Botox for the film at the request of Fastvold, was pregnant when filming and also revealed she was wearing a merkin, aka a pubic wig.
"I was pregnant and naked, but I wasn't naked at all," she continued, "and at the end of the movie, I'm standing in front of a burning building with just a merkin. I felt so free."
Seyfried previously spoke about filming nude scenes, expressing regret over some sequences she shot when she was still a teenager.
“Being 19, walking around without my underwear on—like, are you kidding me? How did I let that happen?” she told Porter in a 2022 interview. “Oh, I know why: I was 19 and I didn’t want to upset anybody, and I wanted to keep my job. That’s why.”
The Testament of Ann Lee also stars Lewis Pullman, Christopher Abbott, Thomasin McKenzie, Stacy Martin and Tim Blake Nelson. Weighing in on agreeing to stop getting Botox so she'd be able to move her facial muscles more naturally for the role of Ann, Seyfried previously said it was 'a big assignment'.
“I couldn’t get Botox for a year,” she said in an interview with Who What Wear last December. “That was a big assignment... When I first got [Botox], I was, like, 'This is amazing,' because I frown a lot.
"But then it all came back in a way that was absolutely necessary for all the work I was doing."
"I'm an actor and that's my job and that's what I love to do," she added.
"I don't necessarily need all that in my life. I just like it. The things that I like, I can sacrifice a little. Of course I can."