I thought this was interesting and really shows how far Amanda has come. What do you all think? Is Amanda the most successful of the girls?

“God Karen you’re so stupid!” high school tyrant Regina George exclaimed to her daft minion when she stupidly suggested that they go to Taco Bell. (She was just trying to cheer her up!) Sure, Karen wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box — she was confused by genealogy and thought that ESPN was a fifth sense — but Amanda Seyfried, who portrayed her in the film, may be the smartest of all her Plastics counterparts. Or just the luckiest.

Six years after the release of Mean Girls, the film stands as a cult favorite. It’s a quotable landmine and a genuinely accurate depiction of the wild animal kingdom that is the high school girl-world. While its themes and funny one-liners remain timeless, the players who brought them to life, and their careers, couldn’t look more different now. In 2004, Lindsay Lohan was poised for Hollywood domination. The not-even 18-year-old was already a bankable Disney star, and was eying edgier, more mature roles (thanks to those pubescent changes). Next to her three co-stars, she was the one we thought was poised for super-stardom.

But things change. Today, Lohan remains engraved in our pop culture consciousness, thanks to endless tabloid fodder, but as an actress, her resume looks a little thin. (Anyone want to admit to seeing I Know Who Killed Me?…anyone? Bueller?) Party of Five‘s Lacey Chabert, the second “biggest name” on the Mean Girls bill at the time, has done mostly voice work since the film, with the exception of a role in Matthew McConaughey’s forgettable Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Of course, Rachel McAdams has hardly disappeared (thanks in part to TBS and ABC Family for their constant looping of The Wedding Crashers and The Notebook), and is perceived as an actress with longevity, but in 2010, Amanda Seyfried is arguably the biggest success story to come out of the Tina Fey-scripted film. Her third film this year, Letters to Juliet, hits theaters tomorrow, positioning her to become a romantic film staple. And since Mean Girls, she’s shown she can handle sappy tear-jerkers (Dear John), darker indies (Chloe), and campy high-profile musicals (Mamma Mia!), all while pulling her own weight alongside more seasoned actors (Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Colin Firth).

For Seyfried, the journey was slow but steady. She did a few guest spots on popular television shows (Law & Order, House, Veronica Mars, CSI), followed by a series of smart, yet risky, choices: Big Love and Mamma Mia! ultimately paid off. Mamma Mia was the fifth biggest film of 2008, and Big Love has raked in critical acclaim over the course of its four seasons (season five premieres next year). On deck for Seyfried: Albert Nobbs, with Glenn Close, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Orlando Bloom, and The Girl with the Red Riding Hood with Gary Oldman and Julie Christie. Not bad for the girl whose breasts can tell when it’s already raining.

But could you tell Seyfried would be a contender for Hollywood Queen Bee simply from her vastly underrated performance in Mean Girls? Her role consisted of mostly blank stares and a few aptly timed silly comments, but maybe that was the brilliance of it. In a way, Karen Smith is to Mean Girls what cheerleader Brittany is to Glee: A blonde scene-stealer with an incredible knack for deadpan.

Did anyone expect Seyfried’s career to explode and Lohan’s to self-destruct? Should we chalk it up to talent, project choices, personalities, or merely luck? Should Lohan do a Nicholas Sparks film to get back on track. (It certainly couldn’t hurt.) And do you, like me, find yourself randomly quoting Mean Girls throughout the day? Oh my God, Danny DeVito I love your work!

Source: Entertainment Weekly

VERONA, Italy — Amanda Seyfried “would do anything for love,” but she won’t do that. And after getting that Meat Loaf song in our head, the “Letters to Juliet” star revealed that much like her character, Sophie, she’s a big believer in romantic gestures.

“I’d fly anywhere for somebody if I loved them,” she told MTV News in the Italian city that inspired “Romeo and Juliet” as well as “Letters,” which opens on Friday. “There are no boundaries. There are some things I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t kill for love, for sure, but I would do anything positive for love. I would do it.”

In the film, Sophie answers a 50-year-old letter a woman named Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) wrote to Juliet about her long lost love and stuck in a wall where the lovesick appeal to Shakespeare’s tragic character for help. Claire and her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) soon fly to Verona and take Sophie along on a road trip to look for the man Claire lost touch with so many decades before.

Seyfried said she was drawn to the romantic flick because of Sophie’s incredibly positive outlook on love. “That’s another reason I liked the script, because I connected to that romance,” the “Mamma Mia” star said. “She’s not cynical. There’s nothing cynical about her, and a lot of times in a romantic comedy, the lead character is pretty cynical about love. And she’s not and I love that. [Charlie's] that guy. … I’m glad it was him.”

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Here’s a great interview from the Morning Call! Amanda touches on Letters to Juliet, romance, Albert Nobbs, and The Girl With The Red Riding Hood. Fantastic read! Thanks, Brian!

Amanda Seyfried was 10 when her dad brought home a video copy of 1996′s ”Romeo + Juliet.” At first, she thought Leonardo DiCaprio looked weird on the cover. But then she pressed play and, to hear her tell it, life was never the same again.

”That was the movie that made me realize I wanted to be an actress,” says the Allentown native of the DiCaprio/Claire Danes love story directed by Baz Luhrmann. ”It really got into my blood, I don’t know how many times I watched it. I took it on vacation with me. I rewrote the script and I’d stand in front of the mirror, pretending to be Claire Danes.

”I really wanted to be Claire and to live in that world, and have a romance like that. And now I’m doing it. It’s not real life but it’s almost better. I love love stories. I love acting like I’m in love.”

Seyfried isn’t alone in her affection for old-fashioned romance. February’s ‘ ‘Dear John,” which paired the actress with Channing Tatum for a tear-stained love story, grossed $95 million, a remarkable sum considering the movie cost only $25 million to produce.

Now comes ”Letters to Juliet,” a star-crossed romance about an American journalist in Verona , Italy, striking sparks with an uptight Brit (Christopher Egan).

The movie begins when Sophie (Seyfried) discovers a wall in Verona where the lovelorn leave letters seeking romantic advice from Juliet — of Shakespeare’s ”Romeo and Juliet.” Sophie’s chef-boyfriend ( Gael Garcia Bernal) is preoccupied with work, so she decides to assist one letter writer ( Vanessa Redgrave) in a quest to re-connect with her first beau (Franco Nero, Redgrave’s real-life husband).

On the journey through sun-dappled vineyards and olive groves, Seyfried falls in love with Redgrave’s grandson (Egan), who just happens to be along for the ride.

After years of reciting Shakespeare to herself in front of the mirror, it was rewarding for Seyfried to finally re-connect with the Bard in her own strange way. In fact, she says, nothing would please her more than to know the PG-rated ”Juliet” prompted her young fans to check out Shakespeare for themselves.

”I so want to be that [inspiration] for them,” she says during a telephone interview fro m New York. ”I’d love it if kids wanted to go off and read ‘Romeo and Juliet’ because it’s such a masterpiece, man.”

”Letters to Juliet” marks the first time that Seyfried has been top billed in a movie. In the past, she’s played second fiddle to Lindsay Lohan (”Mean Girls”), Meryl Streep (” Mamma Mia!”), Megan Fox (‘ ‘Jennifer’s Body”), Channing Tatum (”Dear John”) and Julianne Moore (”Chloe.”)

Asked what it’s like to finally see her name above the title, Seyfried says, ”That was crazy! Too much responsibility!”
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Click to view all the photos!

Buzznet had the fantastic opportunity of going to Verona for “Letters to Juliet” promo and you can check out their experience by clicking the photo above. Enjoy!

Thanks to Brian for passing on this interview. Check it out and stay tuned for gallery updates coming up!

Amanda Seyfried bounds into a café in Los Angeles wearing a wide smile and proffering an outstretched hand. ‘Is it too cold to go outside?’ she asks, glancing at the grey clouds setting on the Hollywood Hills.

We agree to brave the outdoors and, in this town full of film stars, no one gives her a second glance – despite the fact that the billboards for her latest film, Dear John, have been plastered all over Los Angeles in recent weeks.

The 24-year-old actress has spent the past few years gracing advertising hoardings, bus stops and magazines with her exquisite face.

She played Meryl Streep’s scheming daughter Sophie in Mamma Mia! (2008), which grossed more than $600 million (£388 million), stole scenes from Lindsay Lohan in her film debut, Mean Girls (2004), and outclassed Megan Fox in Diablo Cody’s horror film Jennifer’s Body last year.

Seyfried (pronounced Sigh-Frid) has chosen the location – an organic café – and the unassuming venue complements her wholesome appearance. She’s wearing no make-up and her freshly washed hair is still soaking wet. Because of some rare inclement weather she’s sporting an oversized grey woollen cardigan and a pair of beaten-up wellies over her skinny blue jeans. ‘I love these,’ she says, stretching out her legs.

After catching the industry’s eye as the airhead bimbo Karen in Mean Girls Seyfried was recruited for the pilot episode of the television series Big Love. She stayed with the award-winning show, about a polygamist Mormon and his family, for six years, simultaneously filming the acclaimed mystery series Veronica Mars with Kristen Bell for three years.

Seyfried remembers watching an episode of Big Love with her family. ‘I was sitting there watching and all of a sudden it cut to a scene where two people are having sex, and it’s me! Having sex! I just thought, “No, no, no!”‘ she says, covering her eyes with her hands. ‘It was so much more graphic than I remembered. I was horrified.’

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Now that she’s been assured that “The Girl With the Red Riding Hood” would be no “Twilight,” Amanda Seyfried is all in for shooting the lead role in the “super sexy” retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale, directed by Catherine Hardwicke. But Seyfried, who will next be seen in the romantic flick “Letters to Juliet, admitted to feeling a bit intimidated by the news that Julie Christie and Gary Oldman are in talks to join the cast.

“[Oldman and Christie are] are in talks,” she told MTV News. “I mean, come on, that’s ridiculous. That’s amazing. And it’s final this week: They finalized the casting for my [one] love interest [to be played by Shiloh Fernandez] and they finalized the casting for my other love interest, [Max Irons].”

Seyfried is excited to begin working with Hardwicke when filming begins in July. “She is ridiculous,” she praised. “[She's got a] really cool vision.”

Still, the actress said that though she’d met Hardwicke before, she wasn’t about to jump into the project without making sure it was right for her. “I’m always kind of careful about what I choose,” Seyfried said. “I had known her kind of a little bit before, when I was dating Emile Hirsch, and I had been to her house before. That was years ago. And when I had met with her again, she talked about this movie. I completely fell in love with her idea and trusted her form that moment on, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m down.’ ”

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In “Letters to Juliet,” opening May 14, Amanda Seyfried’s Sophie is torn between two guys: the multifaceted Brit hottie Charlie (Aussie newcomer Christopher Egan) and her fiancé, the equally hot but clueless chef Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal). Call it Sophie’s choice — she eventually does choose between the two.

Although Seyfried’s co-stars, Egan and Bernal, promise plenty of eye candy in “Juliet,” the beautiful Italian countryside in the city of Verona (home of Shakespeare’s Juliet), where the movie is partly set, is also eye-catching. As part of our Summer Movie Preview, MTV News spoke to Seyfried, who admitted she’s still smitten with the flick’s gorgeous backdrop.

MTV: For a movie that’s basing itself on “Romeo and Juliet,” it’s not too heavy-handed about playing up that aspect.

Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, if “Romeo & Juliet” didn’t exist, the movie wouldn’t exist, but otherwise it’s its own story. Absolutely.

MTV: It feels like it’s going to be the romantic comedy for the summer.

Seyfried: That’d be really nice. I don’t know, I don’t find it as funny. I thought the script was super romantic, and I loved that. But there are some funny elements when I saw the first cut. Maybe, that’d be nice.
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