Amanda Seyfried has come a long way from the days of playing dizzy but sweet Karen Smith in the classic comedy Mean Girls. Her breakout role came after years of working as a child actor on television. But the film role marked the first time she was treated to the full glitz and glamour of Hollywood as a significant role in a big-budget film. As the cult classic was her big-screen breakthrough, Seyfried remembered the fashion faux pas she committed during the red-carpet premiere.
Of course, the cult classic is still one of her most recognized roles. But at the time, Mean Girls was Seyfried’s first feature film as well as her first red carpet experience. Being new to the Hollywood machine, the actress didn’t know all the red-carpet fashion protocols. Her long-forgotten fashion mistakes were dug up as she was being interviewed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The show brought out her two looks from the Los Angeles and New York premieres for the 2004 comedy. Amanda Seyfried recalled on the show how new she was to the film industry at the time.
I did not have a stylist; I used the only money I had to buy a dress. But there were two premieres, and so I had to buy two dresses because you wear different dresses. … I didn’t know any of the rules, so I was wearing a white bra and black underwear and no slip. And I paid $600 for that dress. … I didn’t have a publicist, I didn’t have a stylist. I did my makeup.
Being a new actress, the Oscar nominee didn’t have the means or the team to help her pull together more fashionable looks. It should’ve marked her Hollywood arrival rather than being called out for some questionable choices in 2022. So, wearing a white bra and black underwear under a sheer black dress wasn’t her best moment, but Amanda Seyfried has learned from those mistakes in the years following her time as a mean girl.
In the same interview, Jimmy Kimmel seemed more worried as to why Paramount didn’t hire her a stylist for the premieres. Seyfried was quite candid as she admitted to slipping through the cracks as she didn’t ask for much as a rising actress in the film industry. The Mean Girls alum went as far as to say she didn’t want to be in the way. As her first big movie role, she didn’t want to come across as needy or diva-like to the studio. But Amanda Seyfried did remark she won’t raise her daughter to act that way.
At least, the Mank star will instill better self-confidence into her child. Amanda Seyfried has moved on, as well as her Mean Girls castmates, from her breakout role as she takes on disgraced entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout, which premieres on Mar. 3. The miniseries will join some of the best shows on Hulu. If revisiting Seyfried as Karen Smith is more your thing, you see all her best Mean Girls scenes by subscribing to Amazon Prime and Paramonut+.
