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Tonight, Amanda Seyfried will celebrate her 30th birthday with a relatively informal affair. "I'll probably get dinner and drinks," she says of her low-key plans in New York City, where she has been based on and off for the past few weeks. It’s a change of speed for Seyfried, who has found herself dashing between Manhattan and L.A. (along with a dizzying list of cross-country locations) over the course of a whirlwind year. The actress has made three films over the past twelve months: In addition to playing Mary in **Joe Wright’**s live-action adaptation of Pan (due out next year), she’ll star opposite Russell Crowe in the family drama, Fathers and Daughters, and join the cast of Ted 2. (“You’re actually working with nothing—you’re talking to air,” Seyfried laughs of the challenges of exchanging lines with a CGI stuffed teddy bear alongside Mark Wahlberg in **Seth MacFarlane’**s highly anticipated 2015 sequel.)
If she is in need of some hard-earned rest over the holidays, you’d never know it by looking at her: Seyfried’s doe-eyed beauty, flaxen hair, and porcelain skin give her a preternaturally fresh-faced appearance. It doesn’t hurt that the actress, who has served as the face of the cult Japanese cosmetics company Clé de Peau’s for the past four years, has an endless supply of the company’s concealers, lip stains, and skin creams at her fingertips. It’s an education that has served her well. Here, the birthday girl makes a pretty convincing case for why a face mask is your best defense against winter—and why washing your hair every day is overrated—while revealing a few early Oscar predictions.
First of all, happy birthday.
Thank you!
You have a lot going on these days—and such varied projects. Do you prefer working in one genre over another?
I have more fun working in comedy, but it’s very fulfilling and indulgent when I work on dramas. I don't know what this says about me but, man—there’s nothing like hysterically crying in front of a group of people! Like, I don’t want to cry in front of my therapist, I don’t like crying in front of my mom, but I love to cry for the camera.
Despite what seems like an increasingly busy film schedule, you always look great. Your hair, for example, never seems to have a bad day.
I wash it once a week! I just dry shampoo it with Kevin Murphy Fresh Hair Dry Cleaning Spray. And I don't dye it. It’s getting a little ashier as I get older, but it’s always been this color. In high school, I hated my hair just for the sake of hating it. I used to do pin curls and sleep on it, or I’d flat iron it every morning. It was so stupid. But now, I just let it dry naturally. When I do wash it, I use shampoo and put conditioner through the ends.
How do you prep your skin to do battle with the New York City cold?
The Clé de Peau Beauté Intensive Treatment mask is great for that. My skin has actually never been as clear as it is now. I wake up, and wash my face with the Cleansing Foam. I like the foam instead of the milk because I need the bubbles! I maybe put on concealer depending what I’m doing, then I apply my UV Protection Cream and I walk out the door. I don't need to cover anything up. At night, I use La Crème.
Have you picked up any good tips while working with the makeup artist [and Clé de Peau Beauté creative director] Lucia Pieroni for all of these years?
She taught me how to contour, and she started filling in my brows. I have blonde eyebrows so I need to fill them in. The Eyebrow & Eyeliner powder compact is great for that. For other [kinds of] color, I might get gels on my nails but generally I’m not into polish so much because my nails are so rotten. I actually started taking pre-natal vitamins just so I could get them to be stronger.
Do you take any other health supplements?
I have a homeopath who makes herb tinctures and immune boosters for me. Her name is Dr. Linda Lancaster and she and her son have a business in Santa Fe called Light Harmonics. It’s amazing. I’m getting to the point where I bring them with me wherever I go. You’re supposed to take them all the time—after meals, before meals. I take them as a shot in the morning with orange juice. I also take homeopathic pellets from her. You can’t take them through the X-ray machines at the airport, though, because they’re so sensitive, so I started carrying an X-ray bag and always ask for a pat-down!
Worth it! Are there any other wellness rituals you swear by?
Aside from drinking a lot of water, I do these things in the morning that my boyfriend and I call “Greenies.” The recipe is from Kimberly Snyder, this nutritionist who I’ve actually never met but who is friends with my boyfriend, and literally the second we started dating, I started making it. You put a ton of spinach or kale into a Vitamix with half a lemon (minus the rind), celery, hemp seeds, chia seeds, turmeric, cinnamon—which is very important for digestion—and an apple, pear, mango, or banana or berries.
Stress, or a lack of it, is a big part of beauty. When you’re not traveling for work, how do you like to unwind?
I go to the movies all the time. Like, two to three times a week. I’ve seen everything, except for Eddie [Redmayne]’s new movie [The Theory of Everything]. I still can’t stop thinking about Birdman. [Director Alejandro González Iñárritu] is insane. There are a few directors that I’m just obsessed with—Baz Luhrmann, Woody Allen, Pedro Almódovar. The reason I did Pan was because of Joe [Wright]. He and Darren Aronofsky are two of my favorites. But you know, as far as I’m concerned, Boyhood is the best movie of the year.
