TORONTO ā These days, Amanda Seyfried isnāt one for playing it safe ā even if she works in an industry thatās becoming allergic to risk.
So when Atom Egoyan offered her the lead in his psychological opera drama āSeven Veils,ā she didnāt think twice about reuniting with the Canadian director for their second film since 2009ās erotic thriller āChloe.ā
āThis was such a complex role. And also, it was scary and challenging in a way that I'm always looking for,ā the 39-year-old says during a visit to Toronto last week.
āItās not easy to find projects like this. And if I'm going to be away from my family, it's got to make sense. Itās got to be worthy of my time.ā
Asked why she thinks projects like āSeven Veilsā are rarer to come by, Seyfried replies bluntly: āStudios are afraid.ā
The film stars Seyfried as Toronto-based theatre director Jeanine, whoās asked to helm a restaging of Richard Straussā āSalome,ā an opera once brought to life by her late mentor and lover. As she delves into the production, she begins to confront lingering scars left by her mentor, as well as her father, which influences her creative vision.
The film is imbued with exceptional realism thanks to Egoyan's deep access to an actual Canadian Opera Company production of "Salome" that he directed in 2023.
Egoyan says he initially envisioned āSeven Veilsā as a smaller project but embraced the chance to involve an actual working company. The COC allowed his film access to the set, cast and orchestra at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, where the real "Salome" was mounted.
āI thought it was going to be pretty straightforward to make, but then once the train leaves the station, you go, āOK. This is actually very challenging,'ā Egoyan says of the 19-day shoot, which also cast COC singers including Ambur Braid, Michael Schade and Michael Kupfer-Radecky.
Shooting around the operaās schedule proved to be a āreally expensiveā logistical headache, he says, noting there were multiple hurdles along the way ā from securing financing to finding U.S. distribution. Although it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023, "Seven Veils" is only hitting theatres Friday.
Seyfried, who broke out in 2004 for playing a ditzy blond in the teen comedy āMean Girls,ā was generous with expletives while sharing a lively rapport with Egoyan.
āIt's really important to make these movies and to get people to help you make these movies," says Seyfried.
"Iāve been telling you, Atom, that people trust you. They want you to make movies. They want you to tell your story with your voice, your style, because you are a master of that," she says, turning to the director.
"And yet, itās harder to make movies. It's harder to get funding for movies, even if you're doing it in Toronto, in your home city, with your friends.ā
The film was made for $9 million and produced by Rhombus Media and Egoyan's Ego Film Arts, with additional funding from Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates.
Egoyan says he knows āthere are audiencesā for his style of cerebral indie dramas but suggests the entertainment landscape has become āso splinteredā that funders are more cautious of market trends, "and so that dictates a budget.ā
He credits a āscrappyā team and āa visionary producerā in Rhombus founder Niv Fichman with helping bring the project to life.
Fichman was also on the COCās board in the '90s and recommended Egoyan to direct the 1996 version of āSalome.ā Coming off the heels of his 1994 sexual obsession drama āExotica,ā Egoyan seemed a natural fit for the job.
The opera tells the story of Jewish princess Salome, who becomes increasingly infatuated with John the Baptist and requests his beheading when he rejects her. Egoyan says when the COC revisited āSalomeā in 2023, he wanted to see a female director take the helm ā an idea he explores in his film.
"If you can't change the actual production, you can create an imaginary space where you do. So you create a character that wants to change the production," he says.
"Wouldn't it be great to see what a woman would do with that role?"
"I would have had Salome behead him herself," adds Seyfried.
āSeven Veilsā is distributed by Elevation Pictures in Canada, and XYZ Films and Variance Films in the United States. Egoyan says itās taking longer for indie dramas to find distribution in an era where streaming services have changed how films are measured for success.
āStreaming services are about algorithms, and they know exactly how many people will watch this type of thing,ā he says, which makes it harder for certain films to find their place.
Still, he points to the success of āThe Brutalistā and recent Oscars sensation āAnoraā as proof that indie dramas can break through.
Seyfried says sheās most drawn to āscrappy,ā demanding roles at this point in her career. After her Oscar-nominated performance in 2021 crime drama āMank,ā she stars in Craveās opioid-crisis series āLong Bright River,ā premiering this month, and will play the lead in Mona Fastvoldās upcoming religious historical drama āAnn Lee.ā
āI feel way more fulfilled in my life now because I'm making choices based on what really moves me, as opposed to making choices just to keep up momentum or whatever it is that we delude ourselves into thinking matters,ā she says.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2025.
Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press
