“Confidence plays a big role in how you perform, for sure.” – Amanda Seyfried
Actors’ big break stories are typically uplifting, particularly when they happen in dramatic fashion. One such example is the big break story of Academy Award nominated actress Amanda Seyfried, whose breakthrough role was in a supporting part in the hit comedy Mean Girls. Speaking with Collider, Seyfried reveals that she was moments away from starting her first college class before she decided to take a gamble on Mean Girls.
Seyfried was all set to go to college at New York City’s Fordham University — that is until she had her final screen test for Mean Girls on the day of her first class. While heading to class, Seyfried came to a major life decision. She reveals, “My life turned in a day, in an hour. It’s not an anecdote. It was a crazy point in time where I had to make that choice. I was standing in front of the elevator bays of Fordham University at the Lincoln Center campus, I was on the phone with my parents, and I was 15 minutes late for my first class because of my Karen screen test. I thought, ‘Do I go up there and take this one class that I’m signed up for, or do I just go home and hope for the best?’ And I went home. My dad was like, ‘Just leave.’ So, I left and I got Mean Girls. I knew I was gonna get it. I figured I would because it was the last stop. I had already gone out to L.A. and auditioned for Regina. They showed so much interest. I had such a good time at the audition, I knew. It wasn’t a choice I made lightly.”
Luckily for Seyfried, the gamble paid off: soon after Mean Girls, she landed two major television roles. She continues, “I got Veronica Mars within two weeks of moving to Los Angeles after shooting Mean Girls. I also got Big Love the same week. Big Love was a blast. That was a main contract character. I think I was five, six or seven on the callsheet. And with Veronica Mars, I was recurring, so I was able to do both of them. It was another stroke of luck. I knew then that I was being taken seriously, in a way, and that made me feel really good because confidence plays a big role in how you perform, for sure.”
Of course, that was a welcome change for Seyfried, who did not earn much money during her brief stints on As the World Turns and All My Children as a teenager. She recalls, “It’s all relative. I started from nothing. I remember looking at my bank account when I was doing All My Children. I didn’t know how I was gonna pay my rent. I was living in a studio apartment on the river and I didn’t know how I was gonna do it. I was 17, and that same year, I got Mean Girls. That gave me a chunk that I’d never seen before. And then, you work again and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I can afford more than rent. I can afford to lease a car.’ It’s incredible.”
