Amanda Seyfried's singing in The Testament of Ann Lee was 'stressful' and 'hard'
Hollywood actress Amanda Seyfried has admitted singing for her role in new movie The Testament of Ann Lee was "stressful" and "hard" because she had to tap into her character's "grief and desperation".
Amanda Seyfried's singing in new movie The Testament of Ann Lee was "stressful" and "hard".
The Hollywood actress plays the title role in Mona Fastvold's new film based on the story of the 18th-century founder of Christian sect the Shakers who emigrated from the UK to the US in 1776 with a small group of followers - and Amanda admits recording the musical numbers was tough.
She told Variety: "Some of it was un-singing. There’s no such thing! De-singing? Anti-singing? A lot of it was animal sounds as opposed to melodic sounds.
"And it was less about listening to myself. In the studio in Budapest, I was hearing myself, but it was not happy-making - it was stressful, because I understood that I didn’t have to sound beautiful in a way that is beautiful to me.
"It was more like a woman on her knees. And it was f****** hard. We did the birthing song Human Treasures so many times because I had to release my s***, my ear, my needs, Amanda’s needs, in order to find the voice that held the passion, the rawness, the grief and the desperation."
Amanda has previously sung onscreen in two Mamma Mia! films as well as the big screen adaptation of Les Miserables and she admits this time it was very different.
She explained: "I realized it takes a long time for me to stop listening to myself when I’m singing. I can’t watch Les Mis without thinking: 'What the f*** was I doing?'
"I was listening to myself the whole time and hated it. [My Les Miserables character] Cosette was full of self-loathing because that was Amanda’s self-loathing, which is not the character of Cosette!"
However, Amanda insists she does actually love singing in movies, adding: "I did[love it]. I love singing. And I love the way it makes me feel when I’m acting.
"After the first week in the studio working on the two main songs [for The Testament of Ann Lee] before we started shooting, it felt great because I understood exactly what it was and what Mona wanted.
"But I do remember Mona just laying on the floor with me and my dog in the studio in Budapest while I was singing and trying to get closer to Ann Lee’s grief!"
Another aspect of the film which Amanda found difficult was adopting her character's British accent as Ann was originally from Manchester in the north of England - and the actress used UK TV star Maxine Peake as her inspiration.
She said: "[The accent was] incredibly difficult. I had so many nightmares about people being like: What the f*** is she saying?
"My job is to keep you completely committed to the story. And my fear was that it wasn’t gonna work. Which is why I kept saying to Mona, don’t you want to get an English person?"
She added of Peake: "She was my beacon ... And the internet had her on a silver platter for me."
