Give Amanda Seyfried Another Shot at ‘Les Misérables’
She can nail it this time around
We love Amanda Seyfried around here. Now that she’s been awarded an Emmy as America’s Best Actress (in a limited series) (or TV movie) (frizzy hair and smeared lipstick edition) for her take on Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout, everyone else is starting to take notice. Seyfriend and her patagonia fleece were phenomenal in the Dropout, outshining even the most formidable of co-stars: William H. Macy’s forehead and eternal fave Alan Ruck’s cabal of guys who work at Walgreens. Nobody could do it better than Seyfried.
Because of her outstanding achievements this year, she deserves more than just a statue. Specifically, she deserves a do-over in the 2012 live action film Les Misérables. Seyfried played Cosette, the ethereal street rat orphaned by Anne Hathaway in her toothless, hairless turn as mama Fantine. In 2021, Seyfried told The Crown actress Vanessa Kirby in a Variety Actors on Actors sit down that she still has nightmares about her performance. Director Tom Hooper insisted all his actors sing on film with no dubbing.
“I wish I could redo ‘Les Miz’ completely, because the whole live singing aspect just — I still have nightmares about it,” she said.
Here’s a clip of Seyfried singing about her imaginary boyfriend, Eddie Redmayne. Hugh Jackman’s in there too, playing croissant thief Jean Valjean, singing directly at her in a way that discomfits me.
She has more endurance, a stronger voice, and a better vibrato than she used to have.
“I feel like I definitely could play Cosette now,” Seyfried said.
OK! We should let her take another stab at it. Just as we weren’t ready for the groundbreaking CGI in Tom Hooper’s CATS, we weren’t yet ready for a live singing version of Les Miz in 2012. Not the audience, not the actors.
Anne Hathaway won an Oscar for her performance, but we all hated her for her collection of disingenuous “It came true!” moments on the press tour. We love her again, possibly because of Ocean’s 8 or that time she sang “Since U Been Gone” on Kelly Clarkson. She deserves another go at it, too – performance-wise, she doesn’t have to change a thing. She just needs to channel the same persona she used during the WeCrashed promotional circuit.
Because I’m feeling generous: Jackman can try again, too, now that he has The Greatest Showman under his belt. Eddie Redmayne has probably learned a lot from his Fantastic Beasts costars Johnny Depp and Ezra Miller since then. As for Russell Crowe, who attempts singing as police inspector Javert Javert: I’ve given him enough chances. We’ll recast that one, maybe with someone who can pull it off, like one of the boys from Euphoria.
