50 interesting facts about Amanda Seyfried: Animal lover, had huge crush on Leonardo DiCaprio

Amanda Seyfried is a talented and gorgeous American actress best known for her roles in Mean Girls and Mamma Mia! She is an animal lover at heart and has a beautiful dog named Finn. Here are 50 interesting facts about this up and coming Hollywood actress.

1. Amanda Seyfried was born on December 3, 1985 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to parents Ann and Jack.

2. Her mother was an occupational therapist and her father a pharmacist.

3. She is of mostly German descent, and also has some Scots-Irish and English ancestry.

4. Both Amanda and her older sister Jennifer, who is a musician, have often joked about where they got their love for performing and the arts from.

5. Amanda Seyfried began modeling at the age of 11.

6. When she was a teenage girl, she had a crazy crush on Leonardo DiCaprio and especially liked him in Romeo + Juliet and Titanic. "Actually, it was not a crush. It was an obsession! I was also obsessed with Richard Dean Anderson from MacGyver and Indiana Jones."

7. Amanda admits that after Baz Luhrman's 1996 "Romeo + Juliet", she immediately fell in love with acting and knew that is what she wanted to be when she grew up.

8. Amanda appeared on the cover of three Francine Pascal books.

9. By the time she was 15, she had turned her talent to acting and took on the role of Lucy Montgomery in As The World Turns. She also had an uncredited role in the daytime drama All My Children.

10. She modeled in print ads for Limited Too before pursuing a career in acting at age 17.

11. One of her other gigs was as a waitress in a retirement community.

12. When she was in her high school senior year, she missed a total of 70 days due to acting commitments.

13. Seyfried graduated from William Allen High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 2003.

14. Amanda Seyfried was fired from her first-ever acting gig. "I was bad, I was really bad," the actress said in an interview.

15. Amanda was considered for the roles of Regina and Cady before landing the role of Karen in 'Mean Girls'. Although the producers considered her for the role of Cady, it was decided that she was better suited to play Karen.

16. Her character in "Mean Girls" is remembered by her breasts ability to predict the weather. Even though she portrayed a "plastic" girl, the role put her on the Hollywood scene and helped her getting larger roles.

17. Amanda hates going to movie premieres for movies that she is in.

18. Amanda originally auditioned for the lead in the TV hit "Veronica Mars," but lost the part to Kristen Bell. She was however, offered the role of "Lilly", Veronica's dead best friend and was brought back many times.

19. From 2004 to 2006 Seyfried made multiple guest appearances on television series, including House, M.D., Justice, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, American Dad! and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

20. In 2005, Seyfried played the lead character, Samantha, a role written by director Rodrigo García specifically for her, in one of the nine parts in the film Nine Lives, composed of nine short films with different themes and an ensemble cast. For her performance in the film, Seyfried, along with the film's other female leads, won an award from the Locarno International Film Festival, for Best Actress.

21. Seyfried landed her first leading lady role as Sophie in the film adaptation of Mamma Mia! in 2008, alongside Colin Firth and Meryl Streep. The movie was hugely successful and to date, it is the 73rd highest grossing film ever.

22. Before she got the role of Mamma Mia!, she had studied singing for five years with a broadway voice coach.

23. She her former boyfriend of three years, Dominic Cooper met on the set of 'Mamma Mia!' in 2007.

24. In 2008, Seyfried appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair's "Hollywood's Next Wave" issue alongside Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively and Emma Roberts.

25. In 2009, Seyfried's career took a racy turn as she portrayed a prostitute in Chloe. The film stired up controversy with a much-buzzed-about sex scene between Seyfried and co-star Julianne Moore. "I had to do it," Seyfried says of taking on the racy role. "It was clearly the riskier choice but I think the better choice."

26. In 2009, Seyfried was nominated for two awards for her performance in Mamma Mia! - 'Breakthrough Performance Female' at the MTV Movie Awards and 'Favorite Cast' at the People's Choice Awards.

27. Another professional victory for Seyfried occurred in 2010 when she landed the role of college student Savannah in Dear John, starring opposite international heartthrob Channing Tatum.

28. In 2010, she then went on to win the ShoWest 'Breakthrough Female Star of the Year' award.

29. Amanda was voted one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in the World in 2009 and 2010.

30. Glamour magazine's April 2010 issue dubbed Seyfried as The Most Down-To-Earth and ranked No. 3 in the "50 Most Glamorous Women of 2010.

31. After a series of auditions, Seyfried's next major role was the lovely Cosette in the film adaptation of Les Misérables. Seyfried was said to be over the moon and went on a massive health kick, giving up caffeine, dairy and alcohol just for the part.

32. In 2012, the cast of Les Misérables won the Satellite Awards' 'Best Ensemble'.

33. In 2011, she starred in Red Riding Hood, which was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio whom she had a major crush on when she was a teenager.

34. If she was not an actress, she said she would have purused meteorology. She admits being fascinated by weather.

35. Amanda loves her Australian shepherd dog, Finn.

36. Amanda lost the part of Babydoll in the movie "Sucker Punch" because she was committed to her HBO show "Big Love." The role went to "Lemony Snicket" actress Emily Browning.

37. She says one of the perks of being an actress is locking lips with her hot male co-stars. "I can't lie. It didn't suck making out with Channing [Tatum] and Justin [Timberlake]."

38. Though in her 20s, Amanda Seyfried was once told she needed to get Botox. "I was like, Damn you! But we're in Hollywood," she told Elle. "I'm on a huge screen. With these new digital cameras, you can see the peach fuzz on my face."

39. Although she doesn't show it, Seyfried has openly admitted that she suffers

40. badly from stage fright, meaning she has never performed on broadway.

41. Seyfried has also shared in interviews that she suffers from anxiety and panic attacks.

42. She played the titular character in the 2013 film, Lovelace. The role was originally intended for Lindsay Lohan but due to personal issues, she could not commit to the role. It was a great thing since Seyfried did an outstanding job in the movie.

43. She felt a bit shy about the nude scenes but quickly got over it. . "It's funny, because I felt liberated when I was doing it," she says of the film's nude scenes. "It didn't seem as scary as I thought it was [going to be]. It was astonishing how quickly I was able to jump in wholeheartedly."

44. Amanda Seyfried net worth is $10 million.

45. She is 5 ft 3 in (1.61 m) tall.

46. Seyfried has a taxidermy collection. Some of her collections contain a baby horse, a fox, an owl, a moose, a goat, a hybrid taxidermy deer and butterflies.

47. During an appearance on Conan, tv host Conan O'Brien gave her a taxidermy raccoon attached to a jet pack as a gift for her collection.

48. She has also dated Jesse Marchant, Ryan Phillippe, Josh Hartnett, Alexander Skarsgard and Desmond Harrington.

49. Since October 2013, she has been dating actor Justin Long. The couple are low-key and prefer to avoid paparazzi and media attention whenever possible.

50. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her gorgeous dog, Finn.