Amanda Seyfried Takes Linda Lovelace

AMANDA SEYFRIED loved the physical transformation that came with playing Seventies porn star Linda Lovelace in her latest film, Lovelace.After becoming "sick of playing myself", she wanted a true challenge.

"It's crazy to become somebody completely different - I've never channelled anybody for a role before," she said."Costumes work wonders for people and with this more so than ever - I had brown contacts and wigs and had freckles drawn on.It didn't take long because I barely wore any make-up, but, man, the wonders a wig can do. At first, it was strange seeing myself like that, but I love disappearing."

The film focuses on how Lovelace - born Linda Boreman - went from being an innocent ingénue (with the school nickname Miss Holy Holy), to starring in one of the most famous porn films in history, Deep Throat, which was first released in 1972 and thought to represent a new wave of sexual freedom.However, Lovelace's story isn't a happy one - she was forced into the porn industry by her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, who beat, prostituted and raped her.Eventually, she wrote an autobiography, entitled Ordeal, about her experiences and became a strong anti-pornography campaigner.Although the sex scenes aren't as explicit as they could be, seeing the intense abuse that Lovelace was subjected to is still shocking.

"The backdrop is Deep Throat and her becoming a porn star, but it's really about the relationship that Linda had with her husband - which was terrible," said Seyfried."I just wanted to do her story justice because a lot of people still don't believe it.The violent scenes were pretty difficult.It's not natural to be manhandled, but I wasn't worried physically, the emotional aspect was really hard - it was exhausting.But Linda actually went through it, I'm just playing her.She really endured all that."

Seyfried, who is famous for playing less hard-hitting roles in films including Mamma Mia! and *Mean Girls, * thought long and hard about accepting the role - it being an unarguably risky career choice for a young female film star:"When it comes to sex, Hollywood can be really hard on actresses, so that played into it at the beginning, but I couldn't pass it up."

Perhaps surprisingly, it was Seyfried's father who was instrumental in her taking the part and helping her handle the darker aspects of her character's life.

"I was nervous about my dad seeing me naked," she admits."It was hard watching it with him, but he's such a big supporter and I really need his approval.He was so influential in getting me into the role and getting me there emotionally.But nudity isn't very scary - there are certain things that I don't want to expose for personal reasons, but I do expose more than some people because I'm comfortable with that."

Despite the ill fate of Lovelace, the 27-year-old believes that the industry does have the capacity to empower women - even if it does have a morally shady reputation.

"Everybody should be able to freely express themselves, sexually or otherwise," she said."There's a place called Kink in San Francisco, which the directors, Jeffery and Rob went to, and it's porn made by women for women and it's wonderful.Not all women are coerced and beaten into porn.These days, the mob isn't behind every porn production.People should be able to watch whatever they want.I don't support violence and paedophilia or disturbing things like that, but porn's a big genre and I don't think it should be censored, people would watch it more and more."

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Lovelace (pictured left) was always adamant, following the release of her autobiography, that the public should not watch Deep Throat.Seyfried hopes that - like Lovelace's family, who have already endorsed the film, even attending its red carpet premieres - that the Seventies star would have approved of the film's portrayal of her story.

"I think it would have been hard for her to see it, but I think she would have been grateful," she said "She just wanted to be heard and, really, she never was.But she survived, had kids and got her white picket fence.She lived through it."

Lovelace hits cinemas on August 23.