By Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway
LOS ANGELES, Dec 24 – Amanda Seyfried acknowledges she knew little about Ann Lee, the 18th-century founding father of the Shaker motion, earlier than portraying her in “The Testomony of Ann Lee,” a movie opening Christmas Day that explores the visionary chief’s quest for equality and communal dwelling.
“I used to be shocked that I didn’t study her in my very own American historical past courses,” Seyfried – who starred in “Mamma Mia!” – advised Reuters. “This girl is the chief of the Shaker motion.”
The Shakers have been a Christian motion additionally recognized for his or her celibacy and ecstatic worship to shake off evil.
The movie, directed by Mona Fastvold and distributed by Searchlight Photos, follows Ann Lee, proclaimed as the feminine Christ by her followers.
Within the film, Ann Lee goals to ascertain a utopian society the place the Shakers worship by way of music and dance, based mostly on actual American historical past.
Together with Seyfried, the movie stars Lewis Pullman as William Lee, Ann’s brother; Christopher Abbott as Abraham Standerin, Ann’s husband, and Thomasin McKenzie as follower and buddy of Ann, Mary Partington.
Like Seyfried, Pullman didn’t know something about Ann Lee earlier than engaged on the movie.
“The extra you study her, the extra she looks like she ought to be a pivotal determine in historical past,” he mentioned.
Pullman describes the actual Ann Lee as a humanist who advocated for the rights of everybody.
For each Pullman and McKenzie, it was spectacular to see how Seyfried captured each the ache and the highly effective presence of Ann.
The movie’s musical parts have been a key a part of the motion’s story, because the Shakers used music and dance to worship God and advocate for fairness.
It was revolutionary for Seyfried when she realized that for the position of Ann, her singing went past giving efficiency.
“I’m singing to be alive. I’m not singing to sound, to carry out. It’s like oxygen. It positively shifted my perspective on what it means,” the “Expensive John” actor mentioned.
“It’s a musical however not the best way we all know musicals,” she added.
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