-Our first guest tonight
is an Academy Award-nominated actress you know
from such films as "Mean Girls," "Mamma Mia!," and "Mank." She stars in
"A Mouthful of Air," which is exclusively
in theaters October 29th. Let's take a look. ♪♪ -Wow. ♪♪ Look at that. I have a birthday boy who's
very excited to see Mommy. -Happy birthday... Hi, champy. Happy birthday. Do you like your sign? It says "Happy birthday,
Teddy Bear." Mama made that sign.
She just finished. You want to see what I got you?
Do you wanna see? -Please welcome back to the
show our friend Amanda Seyfried. [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ I'm so happy to see you
in person again. -This is bananas.
-I know. We Zoomed a couple times
over the last two years. -We did a lot of Zooming,
and I did not mind it. -You were really good
at Zooming because you lived on a farm, and you would actually sometimes
hear animals in the background. And I will tell you
I liked that a great deal. -I liked it, too. It felt very comfortable,
you know? Waist-up kind of dressing.
You know, it was just nice -- I mean, I had a baby --
very young baby at the time, too,
so it really worked for me. I love the vibe
of a studio audience. Don't get me wrong.
This is awesome. I can't see your faces, but... [ Cheers and applause ] I do -- I'm -- But as much
stage fright as I have -- I really do suffer
from extreme stage fright. I just had some wine. But it really feels nice
that you're here and we're all together.
-It's nice to be together. -It makes it feel like there's
some progress being made. -It was -- Another thing
that was really nice since the last time I saw you
is we were talking about the film "Mank"
that you were so wonderful in. And then you were nominated,
deservingly so, for an Academy Award. -Thanks. I know.
It was a big deal. -I am always --
-But I will say -- That -- That -- Oh. God. I was -- I got the call
from my publicist, who -- I turned my phone off
the night before, because I was like,
"If anyone's going to tell me I got an Academy Award
nomination or didn't, I want it to be my mother."
-That's very sweet. -She lives with us. Yeah. But I was also sleeping in 'cause I had a tough case
of COVID, you know? So it was really hard
not to talk about it because in the press
you have to do all these interviews the next
day, and I was like... [Gravelly voice] "Yeah, no.
I'm really happy. Like, it's really exciting.
I, uh -- No, I, like, couldn't be
happier, really." I'm, like, so ill. And I didn't want that
to, you know, take over -- Because, you know, clickbait
and stuff like that. So I was dealing with one of
the worst moments of my life, worrying that my mom
was gonna get sick. She had been vaccinated.
Thank God. 'Cause it was in March, right?
So it was before I -- Actually I had just gotten
vaccinated two weeks before I got
my positive result... -Congratulations.
It's great to get both. -It's great to have both,
apparently. Hybrid immunity.
But, no, it was scary because I have two small kids
and I was worried about them. And my husband was working.
And it was really stressful. And then all of a sudden,
this amazing career-changing thing happens. And, boy, life is weird.
-Yeah. -Makes you really
embrace the positive. -I would imagine.
-Not the COVID positive. I guess the COVID positive,
as well. -You're right.
This is a terrible two years to say "embrace the positive." Dr. Fauci says, "The last thing
you do is embrace the positive." -Yeah. Well...
-How are your animals? I know we've had some, you
know -- that part of farm life is you learn that life cycles
for some animals are shorter than you might come to expect
from human beings. -Yeah. I was taking
a tally of our chickens, 'cause we just got back from
a long L.A. jaunt, if you will. -And you don't have, like,
a chicken sitter. You just, like,
leave them to their -- -I definitely have
a chicken sitter, but she's more than that. She's the animal whisperer.
-Gotcha. So the chickens aren't like -- You don't, like, leave
a fridge full of stuff and you're like, "All right." -If they were a little bit
smarter, I probably would. But, no, Shannon is ev--
She's amazing. And I just checked in with her,
And I was like, "I don't remember losing..." I came back,
and there were three. I left I guess -- There must
have been only been five then. But I don't recall -- In the last four months,
I guess we lost two. So there's three.
We're gonna get more. But it's not the season for it.
-By the way, when you said, "I went back
and counted my chickens," I thought we were talking
like 50 to 100 chickens. [ Laughter ] -No, I wi-- That's my dream.
-Yeah. But I'm like --
How do you find out? And you're like, "Let's see. There were five, and then
we had -- we had three." I'm not a farmer, but...
-It took me a while, but I counted them
with my hand, and there are only three. I went out one day,
and I was like... But there are so many animals
to look after. -You have goats? -Yeah. Our one goat --
I just checked in today 'cause we're going
aback up tonight. -Did you count and you were
like, "One. They're all here." [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. We have six still. Thank God. No, one is -- There are two
who are struggling. One has a -- is struggling with something
called precocious udder, where she -- her udder
gets really inflamed and heavy. And witches milk
comes out of it. It's not a joke.
This is what our vet told us. 'Tis the season.
-I can't believe the best word they could come up for that
for "precocious." -I know. It's -- -"We have a toddler
who is precocious. He is very swollen,
and witches milk..." -And witches milk comes out
out of his orifices. That would be terrifying,
but, yeah. -Is the goat gonna be okay? -I think she's got
a fine prognosis. -Okay. -I'll know more tomorrow. -Okay.
But we'd love to have you back. -Thank you. I love --
This is my favorite show. -We love having you here.
-It really is. -What about Halloween? The one-year-old probably
doesn't have much of a take. -Yeah, I tell him he's gonna be
an officer dinosaur. He's gonna be a cop and
a dinosaur mixed together. -Okay. Great. Perfect. I think he will look back
on that and thank you. The older one probably --
The older girl, right? -Yeah, she's gonna be Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland
and a pirate. What are your kids gonna be? -The 3.5-year-old's a pirate. And the 5.5-year-old is like a ship captain
but like -- -Like a boss of the pirate? -No. It's weird.
It's not like a sea captain. It's like a cruise-ship captain. [ Laughter ] It's very, like, brass buttons
and, like, a hat. -From "Titanic."
-"Titanic," yeah. And actually my kids
are obsessed with "Titanic." This is a true thing.
And -- Here's the thing. My wife is always --
You know my wife, Alexi. She's like, "Don't tell him
about superheroes because it's just, like,
very violent and stuff." And then I come in one day,
and she's literally reading them a book about the "Titanic." And I'm like,
"Oh, watery grave is fine?" -"Oh, my God, you're gonna
drown" kind of thing. Wow. That's, uh, historical. -I think he wanted to be
a "Titanic" captain because then part of his costume is just sadly drinking brandy
while... -And kids are the best at,
you know... -They're so good
at drinking brandy. -Yeah. They're the best
at, you know, posing. -I do think it's funny that -- I realize now.
I hadn't put it together. That the oldest one picked first
and was like, "I'm a sea captain,"
and the 3.5-year-old, who just, like, exists to be
of an irritant to him is like, "I'm a pirate, so..." -"I'm you're enemy, man." -:I'm your enemy. I hope
I don't ransack your candy." -Wow. What's that like?
God. I have that in my future. -You do have that in your future
because they probably -- What does the girl think
of the little one-year-old? -She's obsessed with him.
-Oh, that's good. -Well, actually, it's evolving. -Okay. There's a lot going on in your
life right now that is evolving. The goat, the relationship
between your children. -I know, and my husband
is working right now, so he is, like, in and out,
and I'm just like -- I think the time you need to be
home right now is right now. Because a one-year-old
who's about to walk, it just -- He wants to die.
-Yeah. -He's just,
"Where are the sockets? Where is the glass?"
-Yeah. -"Show me where the knives are.
I'm gonna have some fun." And it's --
And he's got male energy. -Yeah, that is -- That's a really funny thing.
Like my three and a half -- -You have two of them.
-I have two of them. I brought my 3.5-year-old
to school today. And he just -- He, like, just got on the floor and just
screamed, but, like, happily. Just, like, happily screamed
and then, like, ran his feet around in a circle like he was
one of the Three Stooges. And I was like,
"I don't know what tell you." -You can't.
You just got to walk away. -Yeah, just walk away. -I mean, they're not gonna learn
anything right now anyway. -That's true.
-Except socializing. -Yeah. That's what I said.
I'm like, "I'm leaving, and, by the way, I don't think
you're teaching him anything, 'cause he should know
not to do that." -Yeah. Give it time.
-Give it time. -I guess so. -This film is a wonderful film. It's a deeply --
It's a heavy subject. -It's profound. -It's profoundly sad.
-Yeah. -You play a new mother suffering through depression,
anxiety, postpartum. I would imagine
a film like this, one, you have to be passionate
about the material and, two, they have to
be hard to get made. Like, to have somebody say, "We'll give you money
to make a movie like this." -People -- We have
a lot of investors who -- Maven Pictures, these two women,
Celine and Trudie -- they found people that were
passionate about it, as well. And they found the money, and we made this tiny
little movie in 21 days. And it was kind of awesome because it was small,
and I liked that. And we were just all together. But at the same time,
it's just -- it shows -- It reflects really
how we talk about, you know, mental health
in general and also how we treat mothers
in the healthcare system, which is we don't
treat mothers in the -- As soon as you have a baby,
you go home, and that's it. There's no fourth-trimester
check-ins. There's no,
"Hey, are you feeling okay?" And, you know, your partner --
If you're a single mother, you know, you're made to feel
like you have to do it alone, which is crazy. We used to --
It used to be a tribe thing. And, luckily for me,
I do have that. My mom lives with us. And I can pass the baby off
with her when I'm working or whatever,
and I know that they're safe. But it's so traumatic
to deliver a baby even if you're not suffering
from anxiety or depression or any kind of mental illness
to begin with. You -- It's alw--
I feel like for most -- Every mother I've ever spoken to
I know is terrified of the night times,
because you put your baby to sleep and you're just hoping
that they don't die in the middle of the night.
It's grim. But it's a reality of motherhood
and of having a small child -- Even you, I'm sure it's hard
because you can only do much. -Yeah.
-You can't feed your baby. You have to make sure that your wife is doing okay
and the kids are okay. And it's just --
it's really hard. And nobody --
We don't talk about it enough. And I hope this movie
generates that conversation. And I hope people
understand that, that there is a lot of help
out there and that we need
more of it also. We can't be forgotten as women,
especially leaving the hospital getting those $20,000 bills,
even after insurance, and no help, no, like -- Lactation consultants are
not free, as far as I know. And psychological help
is not affordable. -It's really a beautiful
and important film. [ Applause ] It's so nice that you used
your platform to tell it. -Oh, thanks.
Yeah, I hope people see it. Listen. It's not easy to talk
about this kind of stuff. But you have to talk about it
in order for people to feel like there is a place to go
when you're feeling that way. -I'm so happy to see you. It's always such a delight
to have you in the studio. -Yeah, thanks. I'm so happy
that I'm here with you. -I know. It's really nice
to have you here. -Yeah, I feel safe.
I am definitely not -- -That's what we try very hard
to do. "A Mouthful of Air"
is wonderful. It's exclusively in theaters
Friday.
