Struggling folks drift to Philadelphia’s Kensington neighbourhood to build makeshift homes, to find community and solace where they can. Actor Amanda Seyfried grew up in Pennsylvania, yet she wasn’t familiar with the gritty area.
“I knew a lot about Philly, grew up in Allentown,” she says. “But I didn’t know about Kensington.”
Many people don’t know about Kensington or don’t care, happy to write off the neighbourhood’s denizens for being homeless, for being addicted. Seyfried’s new TV show “Long Bright River,” however (debuting Thursday on Crave), wants everyone to know about Kensington. The police brutality. The lack of sex-worker support. And how the opioid epidemic creates pain that ripples outward forever.
Seyfried plays a beat cop who stumbles on a possible serial killer targeting vulnerable Kensington residents and is desperate to suss out who it is before the murderer can hurt someone she loves.
We talked to the actor about using TV to attack our problems, how she is staying sane in these troubling times and the one sunnier role her daughter wishes she’d go back to.
Your character in your new show feels very haunted. What drew you to playing someone who is filled with so much pain?
I don’t know if I was drawn to the pain so much, but I certainly was ripe to play somebody who was struggling with something that is something that we all actually universally struggle with, whether it’s as ourselves or a loved one or a friend. Like, it felt like a good time to tell that story. It is a little bit energy-consuming and energy-sucking, but that’s my job, and I’m really good at compartmentalizing.
You mine your own pain when you do this kind of stuff, too. But it’s for a bigger reason. As an actor, I make decisions based on where I’m at emotionally, how much bandwidth I have at the time, how long I’m gonna be away from the kids, who’s directing. You think of all these ingredients and it just was time to do something like this.
The show is very matter-of-fact but also compassionate in its depiction of the challenges faced by unhoused folks and the abuse of police privilege. Is it important to you to produce art that grapples with social issues?
Oh, big time. I think it’s essential. Every once in a while, you do something for you. You do something that’s just indulgent and fun, because you want to entertain yourself, you want to entertain. There’s always a message somewhere, and sometimes you just want to have some fun and play with your friends, but sometimes you want to go to work and tell stories about real people, no matter the context.
Especially as there’s a lot of the rights being stripped away now in the current climate.
There’s some shows that I’ve been developing over the years about massive divisive social issues, and commentary on what’s happened and what could happen and the fears that we all have. And it’s hard to make shows like that. So the fact that they were going full steam ahead with this show felt really lucky, too. Because the opioid epidemic should never be on the back burner of anybody’s mind. Because it touches everybody. And we can’t forget about that. But, in order to not forget about it, we also have to put it on our TVs.
You’ve lived on your farm for many years and you’ve mentioned that it’s been good for your mental health. This year has been very stressful for many people. How have you been maintaining your own mental health, and what are some ways that you can recommend people to be kinder and softer to themselves right now?
Sometimes in order to feel softness for yourself or inside is to consider the softness of other people. And I know that’s hard to do. There’s a lot of judgment. There’s a lot of arguments. We’re all so divided. The thing that really helps me survive when faced with the news or tough people, I always think: hurt people hurt people.
That’s in the show, too, when they point out that that group of playing children are the same humans who may one day grow up to have substance use issues.
These women, yeah, we all started the same way. When you humanize other people, it’s a way of protecting yourself, too. The less anger, the less frustration, the more space you’ll have to get to know yourself. And I know it sounds ridiculous, but it actually works for me, it does. Also, the sauna. If you can get to a sauna, get yourself to a sauna.
I love a sauna and cold plunge.
Well, I’m never gonna get on board with cold plunge, but I understand that it’s scientifically proven to be great. But yeah, it’s hard to take care of ourselves in this climate. In this actual physical climate and emotional climate and political climate.
You share a lot of scenes in this show with your onscreen son. Do your own kids have any roles that they wish you would take on?
My daughter always has ideas, but she wants me to play Sophie (Sheridan from “Mamma Mia!”) again and I’m like, ‘I’m gonna, I will, I’m just waiting for the call.’ We’re all waiting for the call.
They have kind of a weird relationship with my job. My daughter is always clocking when people recognize me. And so it’s been a little tricky because I don’t want her to use that as currency. She’s eight, she doesn’t know. It’s exciting and it’s a novelty, but when she starts to realize the weight of that, the cost of that and the responsibility of that, and the rarity of that, and how I use that and how I make it work for myself and how it doesn’t work for me. She can’t possibly learn all that stuff right now, so yeah, it’s strange.
So what is making you happiest these days? What roles are you drawn to?
Oh my god, playing crazy. Playing crazy is the most exciting. I’ve made it to a point where I’m just like, if that role doesn’t look fun, not doing it. Don’t want to play a detective right now. I just played a cop. Playing a beat cop is where it’s at. You want to play someone in law enforcement, you play the f—king beat cop.
That was always one thing I always wanted to do, and the fact that this show came along when it did, it’s like, ‘I get to put on a uniform!’ Oh my god, it was so exciting. With every bad cop, there’s hopefully, like, seven or eight good cops. I don’t know the statistics, but I know that the good cops need to be supported, too.
And I’m so in awe of what they do and what they face every day. And yet, the people who live in Kensington have space, too, and that space needs to be protected and respected. And so there is an alliance between some of the cops and the unhoused and the people who are living in Kensington. There’s also just ways the city is completely failing them and we’ve got to talk about that stuff. And if people watch this show, they’re gonna know about it, too. And I hope they’re gonna care.
