'I Don't Wanna Deal With Being Naked With a Stranger': Amanda Seyfried Turns Down TV Show Role Over Sex Scenes

Amanda Seyfried has revealed that she passed on a television project because it would have required frequent sex scenes, saying she did not want to be 'naked with a stranger'. The actor made the comments during a conversation at the Hamptons International Film Festival in East Hampton, New York, on 4 October 2026.

For context, Seyfried was speaking to Alec Baldwin, who moderated the festival discussion about her career. Seyfried, 40, said her feelings about on-screen intimacy had changed over time. She also explained how becoming a mother had influenced her approach to setting personal boundaries.

'I passed on a show where I would have to have sex all the time because of the sex,' she said. 'Doesn't matter [who it's with] ... I don't wanna do it. I'm uncomfortable with it. I'm not into it right now.'

She added: 'Maybe if [the project] came along again [at a later point], maybe I'd be in a different space. But I don't wanna deal with being naked with a stranger.'

Why Amanda Seyfried Turned Down the Role

Seyfried did not identify the series or disclose whether the project would proceed. The identity and production status of the project were not disclosed in the cited report.

What is clear is that she framed the decision as a personal boundary rather than a criticism of the production. 'Our jobs are weird,' she told Baldwin. 'And as I get older, it gets weirder. We have to be romantic with people that we're not romantic with.'

She recalled that intimate scenes once felt routine, even enjoyable. 'Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's really uncomfortable. But I can't believe back in the day I was just like, "We gotta make out. Great! This is awesome. I know how to make out,"' she said, laughing.

'And it used to be so fun,' Seyfried continued. 'It was a non-thing. It was like, "I get to make out with a hot person today ... And they're paying me."'

Her comments offered a candid account of how her approach to on-screen intimacy has changed. She did not suggest that actors should avoid such material altogether, nor did she criticise anyone involved in the project she declined.

Motherhood and Saying No

The actor linked her decision to parenthood. Seyfried shares daughter Nina, nine, and son Thomas, six, with actor Thomas Sadoski. The couple have announced their separation, according to published reports.

'I have kids now who are paying attention to what I do,' she said. 'And so I have to be less of a pushover.'

She illustrated the point with an everyday example. While walking in Manhattan with Nina, Seyfried declined a stranger's request for a photograph, then asked her daughter whether that had been all right.

'She's like, "I'm very proud of you, mama,"' Seyfried recalled. A similar exchange followed at a coffee shop, where she declined another photo request.

'And I was, "What the f–k? She shouldn't be saying this to me. I should be saying no,"' she said. Her rule, she explained, is simple: 'If I'm with my kids, I say no ... whatever they are going through is more important than what I'm going through.'

Seyfried's Latest Film Role

Seyfried's comments came as she promoted The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, directed by Tim Blake Nelson. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before screening at the Hamptons festival two weeks later.

In it, Seyfried plays a teacher in an abusive relationship who takes a job at a maximum-security prison and becomes involved with an inmate, played by Scoot McNairy. The film does not yet have a theatrical release date.

Her role in the film demonstrates that she continues to take on complex characters, although she has said her comfort with intimate scenes has changed. Seyfried's concern, as she described it, was not the difficulty of a part but the repeated exposure and vulnerability that came with it.

Whether the unnamed series returns with a different offer remains unknown. For now, Seyfried's position is blunt: the sex scenes were the reason, and she was not willing to make that trade.