Amanda Seyfried Expresses Regret Over Nude Scenes at 19: ‘How Did I Let That Happen?’

Amanda Seyfried told Porter she feels a new “respect level” at age 36

Amanda Seyfried is reflecting on what she’d do differently.

The 36-year-old actress is PORTER magazine’s latest cover star, and opened up Monday about pushing through nude scenes early in her career that made her feel uncomfortable, out of fear that she would miss out on opportunities in Hollywood if she didn’t.

Though on-set intimacy coordinators were not yet commonplace, Seyfried said she emerged “pretty unscathed” from her start in the spotlight – but was still put in awkward situations.

“Being 19, walking around without my underwear on – like, are you kidding me? How did I let that happen?” the star said. “Oh, I know why: I was 19 and I didn’t want to upset anybody, and I wanted to keep my job. That’s why.”

Now, Seyfried told PORTER she feels “a respect level that I have never felt so fully” surrounding her acting career. While she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Mank in 2021 and 2022 Emmy nominations for her role in The Dropout, Seyfried said it comes down to greater confidence in herself.

“It has nothing to do with any level of fame or recognition or critical acclaim,” she explained. “Whatever it is, it’s not because of Mank, it’s not because of The Dropout, it’s not about having seen my movies. I’m respected because I’m 36 years old and I know who the f— I am.”

The interview follows similar comments Seyfried made in her May cover interview for Marie Claire’s Beauty Changemakers Issue, where she spoke about how she “always felt really grossed out by” male fans of Mean Girls asking her if it was raining when they recognized her in real life. (In the hit film, Seyfried’s ditzy character, Karen Smith, believes her breasts have the ability to predict the weather.)

“I was like 18 years old,” she said of her age when the teen comedy, her first film role, was released in April 2004. “It was just gross.”

Seyfried has worked in television and film consistently since, but told Marie Claire that “being really famous [young] must really f—ing suck.”

“It must make you feel completely unsafe in the world,” Seyfried said at the time. “I see these younger actors who think they have to have security. They think they have to have an assistant. They think their whole world has changed. It can get stressful. I’ve seen it happen to my peers.”

“So, I bought a farm. I was like, let’s go in the opposite way,” she said of her home in upstate New York, where she lives with her husband, actor Thomas Sadoski, and their two young children.

For Seyfried, “fame is weird,” despite feeling like she has “never been super famous.”

“I’ve always been somewhat recognizable,” she said. “It’s been the healthiest trajectory. [It’s] not a scary spike. I have my priorities. I know who I am. I know where I’m going. I know what it means. It means that I’m getting to do what I love. I’m actually not afraid of it now.”