It’s rare to find a performer with the kind of range that Amanda Seyfried has, but the actor and Vogue cover star all but transforms with every new role she takes on, whether it’s a spiritual leader in this year’s The Testament of Ann Lee, a rom-com protagonist in Dear John, or actress and Ziegfield Follies performer Marion Davies in Mank. And even those weighty roles only scratch the surface of what Seyfried can do onscreen.
Below, find seven more roles that have made Seyfried such a creative force to be reckoned with for upwards of 20 years.
Karen Smith in Mean Girls (2004)
Though Avantika was pretty iconic in her interpretation of the sweet yet dim-witted Karen role in the 2024 Mean Girls reboot, Seyfried’s performance was the blueprint. Her Karen was hilarious in her guilelessness, and really, is there anyone among us who can forget the line “There’s a 30% chance that it’s already raining”?
Sarah Henrickson on Big Love (2006–2011)
Big Love was an absolute hotbed of female star power (Chloë Sevigny! Ginnifer Goodwin! Jeanne freaking Tripplehorn!), but Seyfried raised the stakes as the oldest daughter of Mormon polygamist patriarch Bill and his wife Barb, regarding the Henrickson family arrangement with enough skepticism to bring the high-concept series down to earth.
Sophie in Mamma Mia! (2008)
I could watch this musical rom-com every day for the rest of my life and not tire of it (…probably). Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Colin Firth, and Pierce Brosnan may get most of the attention, but Seyfried’s incredibly sweet voice and sly machinations as bride-to-be Sophie really anchor Mamma Mia!.
Needy in Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Hear me out: Jennifer’s Body had the temerity to exist before we all decided to start taking woman-helmed horror seriously, and its stars—Seyfried and Megan Fox—deserve a lot more credit for their fab, fright-filled, and not-so-secretly Sapphic performances as high-school besties forced to fight each other to the death.
Cosette in Les Misérables (2012)
It feels like just yesterday that the press tour for this oh-so-melodramatic Tom Hooper musical was absolutely everywhere, and seeing Seyfried play an adult version of Fantine (the illegitimate daughter to Anne Hathaway’s struggling factory worker Cosette) was one of the most exciting parts of seeing Les Misérables in theaters. Mamma Mia! proved it, and Les Mis double-confirmed it: the girl can sing!
Elizabeth Holmes on The Dropout (2022)
It’s not easy to embody a public figure who is constantly in the news without either underplaying it or going way too big. But Seyfried hit the nail on the head with her interpretation of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in this Hulu series that (deservedly) won her her first Emmy.
Nina Winchester in The Housemaid (2025)
Listen, was this movie perfect? Not necessarily, but Seyfried gave a Rosamund-Pike-in-Gone Girl-worthy performance (and I do not say that lightly!) as a nightmarish housewife who—spoiler ahead!—turns out to be a normal woman seeking freedom after accidentally falling for a monster.
