Mamma Mia! star Amanda Seyfried tackles her wildest musical yet
Amanda Seyfreid lets it all out in The Testament of Ann Lee. (Supplied: Searchlight Pictures)
A gifted singer and dancer, luminous Hollywood star Amanda Seyfried is a dab hand at musicals.
Celebrated for her turns in Les Misérables and the Mamma Mia! movies, she's a massive fan of the genre.
"I just want more good musicals to be made," she says with a big grin.
Seyfried's latest film, The Testament of Ann Lee, is by far her strangest (and most spectacular) foray into the popular form.
Directed by Mona Fastvold, from a screenplay co-written by the Norwegian filmmaker with her partner in life and cinema, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet, it's a biopic with a difference.
Nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance, Seyfried plays Ann Lee. Raised in poverty in 18th-century Manchester, England, Lee found solace from a miserable marriage and the tragedy of four infant mortalities by turning to religion.
No ordinary church, the Shaking Quakers — formally known as the United Society of Believers in the Second Coming of Christ — was founded in 1747 by Jane and James Wardley, who believed that singing, heavy breathing, chanting and dancing offered individuals a direct line to God.
'Mother' Ann, who joined the newly founded group, would take their teachings much further. Convinced God was non-binary, Lee saw herself as the second coming. Amassing a loyal following — dubbed Shakers — they journeyed with her to America to escape religious persecution that saw Lee imprisoned.
"Ann had such conviction that people were intoxicated by it," Seyfried says. "She wasn't in it for power. It wasn't politics. It was her faith, and faith meant loving."
While Lee was a proto-feminist of sorts, with pioneering beliefs in gender equality, she's a complicated historical figure. She was also convinced, after experiencing biblical visions, that Eve's original sin in the Garden of Eden required she and her followers swear an oath of celibacy.
"I think her conviction came from trauma, desperate to overcome grief in which she could have fallen apart," Seyfried suggests.
"That the direct link to God is celibacy made total sense in that context. Do I agree with it? Of course not. And are there Shakers left? There are three."
Ecstatic dancing was at the core of some of the Shaking Quakers' worship rituals. (Supplied: Searchlight Pictures)
Shake it off
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion, The Testament of Ann Lee is a mesmeric movie of majestic vision, shot on 35mm, that offered Seyfried what she describes as the "role of a lifetime".
Physically demanding, the film's alive to the breathy rhythms of the Shakers' way of worship, punctuated by fantastical elements shot by Corbet, "that felt like a Caravaggio painting".
Grounded by Seyfried's remarkable performance, Fastvold's shoot put her through the wringer.
"It was strenuous as f**k and all encompassing," Seyfried says.
"I worked my arse off, and you're using your whole body. But that's a privilege, because expressing yourself through movement and song is so much more powerful for the artist. It takes you so much deeper."
Working hand in glove with Fastvold, an extremely collaborative filmmaker, helped Seyfried get under Lee's skin.
Director Mona Fastvold with Seyfried on the set of The Testament of Ann Lee. (Supplied: Searchlight Pictures)
"Mona knows exactly what kind of ride she wants to take us on," she says.
"Her depiction of this is very singular, in honour of a lost art and her own need to tell stories, which is a very good place to exist, as an artist, because her vision is so very clear, just like Ann Lee's."
That collaborative spirit includes leaning into an astonishing score by composer Daniel Bloomberg, who drew on old Shaker hymns and sourced a 17th-century bell to use as a recurring musical motif.
"Mona worked with Daniel from day one, way before I signed on," Seyfried says.
"The whole film is so well researched and impassioned."
Light and dark
The Testament of Ann Lee also features a stacked cast of remarkable performers.
Top Gun: Maverick actor Lewis Pullman plays Lee's devoted brother William, Girls star Christopher Abbott is her cad of a husband, and our narrator, Leave No Trace's Thomasin McKenzie, is a dedicated follower.
"I just met the casting director, Isabella [Odoffin], in London and was going on and on about how perfectly cast the film is and how supported I felt," Seyfried says. "I was in awe of each and every actor."
Ann's brother William (Lewis Pullman) is a close confidant of hers during her journey with the Shaking Quakers. (Suppled: Searchlight Pictures)
Predominantly shooting in Budapest, Hungary, the cast and crew also went sailing for a stressful ocean-crossing sequence, and visited the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts, founded by Lee.
"We were a travelling circus," Seyfried says. "But it was so beautiful to really be there, which was incredible and beautiful."
In turbulent days for the United States, recreating Lee's gentle attempt at finding heaven on Earth felt all the more charged.
"Mona and I were discussing how it feels like it's not trendy to be compassionate anymore," Seyfried says.
"Of course, most of us want to be seen and loved, appreciated and understood. But our egos can make it very difficult to behave in a way that's beneficial for us all."
Seyfried was determined to do Lee's life's work justice.
"Mother Ann just wanted to nurture her community in this journey of finding peace through spirituality," she says. "It's beautifully intentioned. She really had nothing to lose. And that's how Mona and Brady make their masterful films."
The Testament of Ann Lee is in Australian cinemas from February 26.