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Amanda Seyfried had to dig deep for The Testament of Ann Lee.
The actress, 39, opened up about her role at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, Sept. 7, while inside the PEOPLE/EW and Shutterstock studio alongside her costar Lewis Pullman.
Per a synopsis from the festival, The Testament of Ann Lee tells the story of Shakers founder Ann Lee, “one of the most important religious figures in pre-Revolutionary America” — particularly, “the profound childhood and early adult traumas that impacted her psychology and shaped her influential religious views,” like losing all of her children at young ages.
Asked whether she was nervous about approaching the role as a mother herself, Seyfried tells PEOPLE she “was more nervous about portraying somebody who had that kind of power.”
“But at the same time, I realized I can relate to many things about her,” the Emmy winner continues. “She was all about equality and the work and work bringing you closer to God, or whatever your God is. I was really worried about that and the accent and all that stuff, less about as a mother.”
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Of the parenting connection, Seyfried notes “the loss of” Ann’s four kids, which propelled her into her religious-leader role.
“It’s incredibly hard to channel that kind of grief when that is your biggest fear, for sure,” she explains. “But what I did, what I think really helped … is that I was honoring everybody who had lost and honoring that grief which made Ann, then brought her to her knees.”
“So if you’re going to show that graphically, you have to go all the way with it,” Seyfried adds.
To that end, both Seyfried and director/co-writer Mona Fastvold “were not afraid of prosthetics” while making the historical musical drama, adding that onscreen it’s “something to behold.”
“I feel lucky that I’ve never had to go through that, but you’ve got to portray that stuff, because it’s real,” Seyfried says. “It happens every day to many people: child loss, stillbirths, miscarriages. It’s never going to stop happening. And it happened to Ann Lee.”
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The Testament of Ann Lee previously received a 15-minute standing ovation at its world premiere during the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 1.
As Fastvold, 39, described in a statement shared with the latter festival, in part, “Our film is a speculative retelling of the life of Ann Lee, one of the few female religious leaders of the 18th century. She and her followers, known as the Shakers, worshipped through ecstatic song and movement — trembling, exuberant and physically expressive acts of devotion.”
During her conversation with PEOPLE at TIFF, Seyfried opened up about her unique experience playing the film’s titular religious leader and how it related to her roles in past movie musicals.
“I sang and moved in movies before, but nothing this primal and nothing this connected to each other, to ourselves,” she says. “The real Ann Lee brought many gifts to many people, thousands at one point … and I think we got also just got to embrace those gifts, and chaos. Beautiful chaos.”
The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sunday, Sept. 14. An official release date for The Testament of Ann Lee has not yet been announced.
