Amanda Seyfried’s favourite comedy movie: “It’s just so stupid”
Often when actors are asked their favourite movies of all time, you’ll hear titles like John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence, or Chantel Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles or even Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates being dropped. But sometimes, actors can surprise you with their picks.
Amanda Seyfried is one of those actors. The now 39-year-old performer is known for her diverse filmography, from her role as the radiant daughter of Donna Summer in the fun-filled musical Mamma Mia! and her electrifying portrayal of American pornographic actor Linda Lovelace in Lovelace, to starring alongside Justin Timberlake in the 2011 dystopian film, In Time and the screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ American romantic war novel, Dear John.
During the Lovelace press tour in 2013, long before the time of Letterboxd’s ubiquitous ‘Four Favourites’, the actor revealed to Rotten Tomatoes her five favourite films. Alongside Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother and Child, Seyfried named 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer, directed by longtime pals David Wain and Michael Showalter, as her favourite comedy.
Set in a fictional summer camp, Camp Firewood near Maine in 1981, the film takes place across the last day of camp and spoofs the sex comedies aimed at teen audiences of that era (allegedly taking inspiration from Wain and Showalter’s own time in summer camp). Wet Hot American Summer has become a cult classic, generating iconic lines like when Andy (played by Paul Rudd) breaks up with Lindsay (played by Elizabeth Banks) and tells her, “You taste like a burger. I don’t like you anymore”, a quote which has gone down in cinematic history.
Speaking about the iconic movie, Seyfried said it was “a classic comedy” made successful by “a bunch of fucking ridiculously funny people”, noting, “It’s just so stupid. It’s so good”.
Despite Wain and Showalter struggling to convince financiers to fund the film and a resulting budget of only $1.8million, Wet Hot American Summer launched the careers of its ensemble cast, including Rudd and Banks, and also Amy Poeler, Bradley Cooper and Joe Lo Truglio, who all went on to have hugely successful professional tragectories in the industry. Seyfried herself later starred in the 2004 film Mean Girls with Amy Poehler, and the film’s title has since become a moniker of high school angst and going through puberty as an American teen.
Despite the film being a commercial and critical failure at the time, it has become a comedy classic, and is widely regarded as one of the silliest movies of all time, with Seyfried adding that if there was one film she was always going to finish watching, it is Wet Hot American Summer.
Its place in popular cinema was solidified when Netflix released a prequel and sequel television series in 2015 and 2017, respectively. The latter referenced the original movie, as seen when the camp counsellors discuss getting back together ten years later, a theme later acknowledged in the series.
Speaking of saucy comedies with mixed receptions, Seyfried later went on to star in Seth McFarlane’s Ted 2 with Mark Wahlberg, but we can’t imagine it replacing this cult classic anytime soon.
