Amanda Seyfried has scored one of the biggest box office hits of her career with “The Housemaid,” which has grossed a mighty $374 million and counting worldwide on a reported $35 million budget. Seyfried was recently promoting the film on “The Graham Norton Show” and was asked about the movie being a boost to her career not only as an actor but also as an executive producer. The Oscar nominee openly admitted the latter title was a pure vanity credit.
“I’m a producer on it and I didn’t know until three weeks in,” Seyfried said. “I saw the call sheet and I was like, ‘Executive producer? I didn’t sign up for that.’ I called one of the producers and was like, ‘You guys have me on as an executive producer.’ And he was like, ‘That’s what your agent negotiated.’ And I was like, ‘Well this really better be a hit then.’”
“It was one of those vanity credits, because I didn’t do shit to make that movie. I only acted in it,” Seyfried added. “That’s the thing about vanity credits. I don’t want people to get it twisted. What Margot [Robbie] does is really intensely develop movies from jump. I just jumped in, had a bunch of fun and left. And now, I’m like, they’re sending me on a vacation.”
“The Housemaid,” based on Freida McFadden’s best-selling novel of the same, stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie, a young woman trying to escape her past who is recruited to work as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Brandon Skelnar), who have dangerous secrets of their own.
Variety reported last month that Lionsgate is currently developing a sequel with Sweeney and director Paul Feig based on McFadden’s “The Housemaid’s Secret,” the second novel in the book trilogy. The first movie’s screenwriter, Rebecca Sonnenshine, is returning to adapt the next book. Sweeney and McFadden are attached to executive produce once again.
Seyfried’s name was nowhere to be found when news broke of “The Housemaid’s Secret,” although she told Graham Norton that she wants nothing more than to be involved with the sequel. The problem is that her character, Nina, is not included in the book as Sweeney’s characters goes to work for a new family.
“No one’s said anything about No. 2, but I guarantee there will be No. 2,” Seyfried told Variety’s Marc Malkin before official news of the sequel was announced. “And I almost guarantee that I’m gonna be some small cameo in it, because it’s about Syd and her working for a new family. And there’s so much that happens, especially with Michele’s character Enzo. I really wanna see how she keeps Nina Winchester in her pocket, because I will jump the fuck back into that.”
Watch Seyfried’s full interview on “The Graham Norton Show” in the video below.
