As Tinsel Town hurtles towards the impending unveiling of the 98th Academy Award Nominations on January 22, one actress, Amanda Seyfried, appears completely nonchalant about the whole affair. In a profile feature in The New Yorker, published on January 19, 2026, the Mamma Mia! actress has offered a radically new perspective on the award, and it is evident in this feature that a win at the Oscars has never determined the actress’s success.
‘It’s not the win that’s important’
“Do you remember who won in the past ten years?” Seyfried cut through the fog of prestige with her trademark frankness. “It’s not the win that’s important. It’s the nomination.” Seyfried acknowledged that “It does thrust you forward. That’s a fact,” but she also knew exactly what she did not need. “Do I need one in a week or two or whenever? No, of course, I don’t. Would it be great? Of course it would, for every reason. But it isn’t necessary.“
The timing of these comments is also very telling. Seyfried has been heavily tipped for a nomination for Best Actress for her performance in The Testament of Ann Lee, a historical drama that takes place in December 2025, and has been cited as one of the best films of the year. Her performance has already been nominated for both Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, making her a shoo-in for the prize. However, Seyfried appears more concerned about what her awards mean than winning them: trust.
She reflected on getting nominated for an Oscar for the first time in 2021 for Mank: it was a turning point in how people thought of her in the industry. That, she suggested, is already happening, but she is now at a stage in her life where she feels that she has proven herself and is now more interested in being set up with difficult, risky scripts rather than awards.
Seyfried also spoke quite matter-of-factly about the economic aspects of maintaining a long-term Hollywood career. She mentioned that her career has been an intentional design, she said, one that balances personal, artistically ambitious films with more commercial fare. This strategy has proven successful for Seyfried in the past few years, as she has released The Testament of Ann Lee alongside The Housemaid, a sensual thriller that has become a box office juggernaut, grossing over $200 million worldwide, with a sequel in the works.
Indeed, Seyfried believes that art and commerce are of equal importance to her as a filmmaker. Seyfried was quick to point out that all of her artistic choices in The Housemaid were made with the same intentionality as Ann Lee. Looking back on the misses and underdogs of the past, the formula of success in Hollywood, according to Seyfried, is an “ebb and flow” which is necessary.
It is the continuity of values, not victories, which is essential. Now, as she stands on the pinnacle of success in both critical and commercial acclaim, Amanda Seyfried is in an environment of clarity. Whether or not her name is on the nomination list on nomination morning, Amanda Seyfried is obviously happy about the fact that she has achieved something much more profound than an Oscar statuette—she has built an entire career on her own terms.
