Atom Egoyan knew Amanda Seyfried was a “remarkable young actress” when he first met her.
The 63-year-old filmmaker has reunited with ‘Mamma Mia!’ star Amanda, 37, for new film ‘Seven Veils’ after initially working with her on the erotic thriller ‘Chloe’ in 2009 and recalled spotting her talent then.
He told ScreenRant: "‘Chloe’ is in itself a remake, and it was a project that I was really excited to direct, but it wasn't my script. I didn't have the same freedoms that I have when I'm doing my own script and my own production. But I certainly had access the moment Amanda walked into that audition for ‘Chloe’. This is a remarkable young actress who just was so emotionally available.”
For the upcoming movie, Amanda plays a theatre director who is dealing with repressed trauma as she prepares to mount a production of the opera ‘Salome’ and Atom went on to add that the project has taken 15 years in total to complete.
He added: “I would say that the only similarity in terms of the characters is that there's something that both characters feel that they deserve to have, which is withheld from them. Seeing her negotiate that in Chloe was really so true. Every moment in that there was a lot of formula and cliches in that film, but she made it all very real and true, and we had a great experience making it. And so we promised we would find something else. But it took this long, really, it's been 15 years, but I began to think of Jeanine. It's just like she felt like, 'Okay, this is the project we can do again together.'"
