Interview with Amanda Seyfried, star of 'Dear John'

I recently had a chance to sit down and chat with Amanda Seyfried during a round-table interview here in San Francisco, and here's what she had to say regarding her latest movie "Dear John," which co-stars Channing Tatum and is currently playing in theaters. Seyfried also recently starred in "Jennifer's Body."

The film tells story of John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John's increasingly dangerous deployments.

Question: Did you talk to any soldiers, wives or girlfriends, or did you do any research for this role beforehand? And how did you empathize with your character, considering she's having a long-distance relationship?

Amanda: Not beforehand. I did a lot of research on autism though. I'm in a long-distance relationship. I can definitely relate to that, of course. It's so much more severe in Savannah's case and in case of the family that's left behind. It's just not easy. I can barely go three weeks, you know, but I have to, and they have to. The love for your country, for your career takes priority. I think at some point in my life my career won't take priority and I will be able to sacrifice that to just be with the person I love. These soldiers have families and children and wives, and husbands, and they still have to go. They have something inside of them that's amazing.

Question: About the autism you mentioned, I was wondering what are some of the things you drew from that? I was noticing in the scene when you are comforting the character of John's dad, that was very emotional.

Amanda: It's almost like he's a child. He's a scared child, and I know that in my life when I see children struggling with something, you just have to treat everybody as an equal, even if it's a 5-year-old child or 70-year-old man. No matter what's going on with somebody, whether they're typical or atypical, or struggling with whatever in their lives, you just have to treat them like an equal and find a way to connect. In Savannah's case, she knows that Mr. Tyree has Asperger Syndrome, and of course she's just trying to make him feel comfortable and make him feel like she's someone he can talk to and not be scared of. Richard Jenkins is so amazing.

Question: Did you also read the book or was it just the script?

Amanda: I just read the script. I mean, a novel dives so deep and each character is very specific, and I didn't need that, because I knew the book was a little different than the book, especially my character. She's really strong-headed, but in so many more ways in the book that I think the way she was portrayed in the script was more relatable for me and for probably everybody. You need to really like her or else the love story is not going to play well. She almost seemed judgmental, and I didn't want her to be that, and she wasn't like that in the script. I still haven't read the book. I don't think I need to at this point.

Question: What kind of professional and personal experiences have you taken home from this project?

Amanda: Well, I am a pretty romantic person when it comes to all areas of life. I love nature, I love the world and different cultures and travel and all that stuff. I can get very emotional talking about my family because I just love them so much, and I feel my life is really full, and when I got to Charleston I realized that I'm actually living in the wrong place in L.A. The capacity I have to be inspired is just huge, and I just realized living in Charleston was a real gift for me for two months.

I also learned the more you play around when you do a serious movie when the cameras are not rolling, the better you are at accessing the serious, the emotional pieces of you. I realized that Channing is probably the ultimate co-star for anybody, because he's real and he happens to be very successful and gorgeous and all that stuff. That advantage really plays into who he is. It's really special. You cannot take everything too seriously when you're working until it's really that moment when you have to connect, and that's when the camera's rolling.

Question: You have an amazing amount of success already. For someone of a pretty young age, how do you keep things in perspective? Because you have a music career too.

Amanda: Yeah, it's not really a career, the music thing. When people want to hear it, I'll be happy, but it doesn't seem too overwhelming. I always have time in between projects, and I have a long-distance relationship, so my priorities are pretty much in place. Obviously the career is very important and you have to sacrifice a lot because it could go away very quickly. I'm also really insecure, and that makes it easy not to take everything too seriously. Because if you do, then you can just kill yourself. Perspective is easy. I have good people in my life. I have a good dog. I miss him like crazy. But it's worth to go away and talk about this movie, because I'm actually proud of it. Channing and I were driving to this radio show this morning, and I said to him I'm proud of this movie. And he sat behind me and said, 'I agree.'

Question: Working with Channing must have been great then?

Amanda: Yeah, I mean, I really didn't know what to expect with him, because he's older and really experienced and really intelligent, so it's kind of intimidating, but little do you know, he's a clown, in a really fantastic way. You know, I said Channing and I fooled around a lot on set, and Lasse is just as playful or more playful. I mean, he's be like on the Internet and the assistant director's like 'Come on guys, we're ready to roll,' and Lasse and Channing and I would look stuff up and laugh. Lasse is a kid, and that's what I love. I'm actually really jealous when he talks about the next movie he's doing, 'The Danish Girl.' He's amazing. It's too bad he's not on this tour.

Question: This was an emotional movie. Was it easy to do or was it difficult to get in and out of that?

Amanda: It was very easy, because Channing is so similar to me. We can just jump in and jump out. It's a very safe way to do it. I'm not a method actor. It was easy, even when we were doing really intense love scenes. It was really funny. I would like to see a lot of the B-Roll. I haven't seen it yet.

Question: Do you have any projects you are looking forward to a lot?

Amanda: Yeah, I'd like to to a comedy. I worked on a movie last year after "Dear John" that was really intense and twisted and just heavy. And then I worked on a pretty light romantic movie and I'm looking for something that's really light. Really something I don't have to take seriously. I'd like to do a period movie because it would be a huge challenge to play somebody that existed way back when. Hopefully that will come along.