Amanda Seyfried on Running a Farm and Dancing Like Elizabeth Holmes

When she’s not on set, actor and producer Amanda Seyfried’s routines revolve around the Catskills farm where she lives with her mom, two children (ages 6 and 2) and her actor husband Thomas Sadoski, as well as their 34 animals. That’s 17 chickens and ducks, five goats, two horses, five mini horses, a pony, donkey, cat, dog and Seyfried’s new favorite: a free-range hen who wanders into their house at night. 

“They’re beautiful, simple creatures who just remind you what life is about,” she said.

Feeding all of them takes an hour, so Seyfried has folded her exercise routine into the task: During the half-hour her elderly pony takes to eat, she’ll bike, jump rope or lift weights while watching him from the gym. 

Seyfried, 37, who rose to fame as the ditsy Karen Smith in “Mean Girls,” won an Emmy last year for her portrayal of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout.” She now stars in the Apple TV+ series “The Crowded Room” as a psychologist questioning Tom Holland’s character after his arrest for a violent crime. Here, she talks about her favorite breakfast, acting opposite her husband and the best advice she’s received.

What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?

I wake up, I turn on the coffee, I feed my dog and I put my son’s milk on a bottle warmer. Then I can sit for 45 minutes before I have to go out and feed [the farm animals]. 

How do you like your own breakfast and coffee?

Black. My mug lasts all day. I microwave it again and again, and then in the afternoon, if it’s room temp, I’ll drink it. I eat Daily Harvest [muesli] every single day, I soak it at night with milk. I’m obsessed, it’s the easiest breakfast of all time. 

What’s an activity you do to reflect? 

I always find time to crochet. That’s my meditation. I’m finishing up a skirt that was really difficult but beautiful. I’m just transported to another world because I’m creating something with my hands, and I’m good at it. As my daughter would say when she comes home from school, it fills my bucket. 

How does the role of parent tie into your mornings?

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 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. One of us will be up with the boy and then my mom will be making breakfast for my daughter, and my son will have “Blippi” and his milk and his cereal.

How did you prepare to play a psychologist in “The Crowded Room”?

As an actor, I’m insanely curious about humanity in a very specific way, and psychologists are very curious about human relationships and connection. But because I’m playing a professor and psychologist in the late ’70s, it’s still a boys club. It was really interesting to read this book written by [series creator] Akiva Goldsman’s mom, [Mira Rothenberg,] who ran a home [for troubled children]. Each chapter is about a different kid she knew who was incredibly traumatized and struggled greatly. She spoke with these kids like they were her own, and she knew them in a way that no one else did. That’s who I wanted to play.

What was it like to co-star in the series with your husband? Would you guys do another show or movie together? 

He’s an amazing actor and we work really well together. The only reason I’m always second-guessing it is because I’m never interested in watching real-life couples playing opposite each other. That’s just me though. I mean, you see it all the time and it works. 

People had a strong response to the scenes of you dancing as Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout.” Do you have a background in dance?

I do. In fact, in the first sequence when I’m in my office alone, I used a lot of the dance moves and a song that we did [in high school], “Bombs Over Baghdad” by Outkast. I really took as much as I could remember and added it in because Elizabeth Holmes was also on the dance team in high school. That’s one of the things in my research on her that I connected to. I was like, God, we’re so similar. We were on the dance team and we weren’t good.

Tell me about Make It Cute, the children’s playhouse and décor company you founded with your two childhood best friends.

I was 4 when I met [my co-founders, Anne Hoehn and Maureen North]. They were 5. They are the reasons this has become a true business. I’m not good at networking. I’m not good at facilitating things. That’s not how my brain works. 

The three of us founded [Make It Cute] on a Zoom because we were marveling at something that Anne had built at her house. She was building these houses out of fridge boxes during the pandemic. They were amazing. We were just like, how do we do this? How do we make it? How do we make that for everybody? 

We’re using cardboard [for the playhouses]. You can recycle it. You can’t do that with a lot of materials, which I didn’t realize. We’re still working with quality control, because when humans make things, they’re not perfect, but we want to make them as perfect as they can be for what they are.

Who is the character you’re recognized the most for playing?

Sophie. It’s “Mamma Mia” all the way. 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.

What’s a piece of advice you’ve gotten that’s guided you?

Many things can be true at once. It really opened everything up. We try so hard to understand ourselves and each other, and I used to think that only one thing could be true at once: “If I’m feeling this way, then I can’t be feeling this [other] way.” It’s a reminder that there’s a gray area everywhere. You can contradict yourself but still be OK. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Write to Lane Florsheim at [email protected]