Amanda Seyfried has revealed that she turned down a television project because it required a large number of sex scenes, saying she no longer wants to film intimate material with people she barely knows. The 40-year-old actor made the comments on 4 October, in front of a festival audience, during an on-stage conversation with Alec Baldwin at the Hamptons International Film Festival, which People first reported. The festival took place in East Hampton, New York, earlier this month.
Seyfried did not name the series she rejected and said her decision had nothing to do with the co-star attached to it. Instead, she described a growing discomfort with intimate scenes at this stage of her career. “I’m not into it right now,” she said, explaining that she did not want to deal with being naked alongside a stranger.
She told the audience that acting has felt stranger as she has grown older, particularly when she is asked to play romantic scenes with someone she has only just met. When she was younger, she said, kissing a co-star on set felt fun and easy. Seyfried has taken on revealing roles at several points in her career, including Chloe in 2009, Lovelace in 2013 and The Testament of Ann Lee in 2025, and she left room for onscreen intimacy in future work depending on her circumstances at the time. She stressed that her stance reflects where she is now rather than a permanent rule.
Seyfried credited motherhood with helping her set firmer limits. She has two children, aged nine and seven, and named her daughter, Nina, in the conversation. She recalled an incident in Manhattan when she turned down requests from fans for photographs while her daughter looked on, and said her daughter praised her afterwards for saying no.
The festival appearance came as Seyfried continues to draw attention for her role in The Housemaid, in which she stars opposite Sydney Sweeney. A day before the panel, on 3 October, she attended a festival screening of The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd in East Hampton. TheWrap has also reported that she nearly played Joni Mitchell in a biopic, learning to play an entire album for the role, and that she was surprised to find herself credited as an executive producer on The Housemaid.
