Actress and singer Amanda Seyfried got emotional as her film 'The Testament of Ann Lee' received a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, reported People.
'The Testament of Ann Lee' is a historical drama musical film co-written and directed by Mona Fastvold. It stars Amanda Seyfried as Ann Lee, the 18th-century founder of the Christian sect the Shakers.
As per a synopsis from the festival, 'The Testament of Ann Lee' is "an epic fable inspired by the life of Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, a radical religious movement that began in the late 1700s."
Fastvold said in a statement, "Our film is a speculative retelling of the life of Ann Lee, one of the few female religious leaders of the 18th century. She and her followers, known as the Shakers, worshipped through ecstatic song and movement -- trembling, exuberant and physically expressive acts of devotion," reported People.
While talking about the film, Amanda said, "It's a celebration. It's an experience. It's unlike anything, so it is hard to describe for me as somebody who's not very good at describing things. But it felt very brave, and it felt very scary. But once we were shooting that lifted," as quoted by Variety.
If she loved singing on screen, the ace star shared, "I did. I love singing. And I love the way it makes me feel when I'm acting. After the first week in the studio working on the two main songs before we started shooting, it felt great because I understood exactly what it was and what Mona wanted. But I do remember Mona just laying on the floor with me and my dog (Seyfried's nearly 16-year-old Australian Shepherd, Finn) in the studio in Budapest while I was singing and trying to get closer to Ann Lee's grief."
Asked why she cast Seyfried in the lead role, Fastvold said during the Venice press conference, "Amanda has a lot of power. She's really strong. She is a wonderful mother. She is a little mad. And so I knew that she could access those things -- she could access the kindness, the gentleness, the tenderness. And she could also access this power and this madness," as quoted by People.
"And I think that, at our age, there is something really exciting about exploring the combination of all of that. And I saw that Amanda has all of that, and that she was ready to go full force into that," the director added.
Seyfried said during the press conference that making the film was an "incredible" experience, but noted that "it's also really hard playing somebody who's a leader."
"Like yes, I relate to the mother instincts, I relate to the need for community and kindness and compassion and the quality. And I love Mona's intentions and Ann Lee's intentions behind everything they did, and it was just so attractive," the Emmy Award winner explained.
"I also was like, 'Mona, you don't have to cast me,' " Seyfried added. "I kept saying, 'Go with somebody English,' because the accent seemed so hard. That wasn't the hardest part, but it was just, I saw the love that Mona had. This was her baby, and I didn't want to F it up. But she believed in me, so I believed in me, and here we are."
The Testament of Ann Lee also stars Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Jamie Bogyo, Viola Prettejohn and David Cale, according to People.
The Venice International Film Festival runs through Saturday, September 6. An official release date for The Testament of Ann Lee has not been announced yet.
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