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LOS ANGELES, March 6 (UPI) -- Amanda Seyfried says she related to the frustration of her character in Seven Veils, in theaters Friday. Siegfried plays Jeanine, a director mounting a production of the Strauss opera Salome. In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Seyfried said one scene that hit home was when Jeanine cannot get a singer to follow her direction. Even though she herself has never directed, Seyfried, 39, has been an actor since she was a teenager.
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"I understand the frustration, just viscerally when you desperately want someone to get there," Seyfried said. "Just as an actor watching another actor not be able to meet you halfway, it's just so unnerving."
Seven Veils is directed by Atom Egoyan, who previously directed Seyfried in Chloe. They filmed Seven Veils while Egoyan was directing a 2023 revival of Salome with the Canadian Opera Company, with the opera singers playing the performers in the film.
"Turns out you don't direct the opera singers the same way as you do the actors in your film," Seyfried said. "I just try to channel some people I knew, also Atom. I also was able to understand some of the frustrations he has when he's directing an opera."
Egoyan, 64, who directs for both film and stage, explained the different stakes for directing a filmed performance versus one for live audiences night after night.
"When you're directing for film, you only have to get this take and it's there," Egoyan said. "When you're directing someone for theater, they have to do that over and over again."
The director added that actors naturally deviate their performances gradually night after night, making it even more imperative to begin from a place of agreement.
"It's actually really terrifying when someone is not getting your direction for stage at all," he said. "Like they don't understand why they're standing there, why they're doing something because if they take that attitude then it's just going to get worse."
In the film, the story of Salome reflects abuses and traumas Jeanine has endured in her life. Egoyan, who also directed a 1996 production of Salome, said he drew inspiration from the many different interpretations of the historic figure who inspired the opera.
Salome appears in the Bible, dancing for Herod and convincing him to behead John the Baptist. She is also the subject of paintings by Caravaggio, Luini, Glasco and more.
"In the Bible it's a few lines and yet it's just seized a lot of artists' imagination," Egoyan said. "All of them are men really, up until this moment where we can now have a character like Jeanine. Again, I'm a guy but part of my idea was that she takes repossession of this character and makes it something very significant to her."
Jeanine fights for her vision of Salome not only with her cast, but also with the media, financiers and her own family. Though most projects may not be as personal or volatile, Seyfried said she appreciates when art provokes conversations.
"It's the thrill of seeing anything that's going to shift your perspective or at least start a conversation about something," she said. "It's essential to your growth. That's why we tell stories. The best stories are told in a way that gets people to consider, to reconsider or change perspective a little bit."
Egoyan's other films explore grief (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica), sexuality (Where the Truth Lies) and the true story of the West Memphis child murders (The Devil's Knot). He also once got a chance to do comedy in a short for the Toronto Film Festival.
Still, even doing comedy reflected real fears for Egoyan. The video was about what would happen to filmmakers if there were no volunteers. Egoyan is locked in a green room and comically jiggles the doorknob.
"Sometimes when you find yourself in the middle of it, you have to think of it as being comical because it's just so absurd," Egoyan said of the festival video.
Egoyan remembered an incident at an earlier London Film Festival where George Clooney got trapped in an alley without his cellphone and a horde of fans. A paparazzi photo in the newspaper the following day stoked Egoyan's fears, which he drew upon for the comedic short.
"He looked like a trapped animal," he said. "These things have to be seen as comical. It must've been terrible at the time. It must've been incredibly stressful."
