As soon as life started speeding up for Amanda Seyfried, she was ready to slow it down.
Long before she was a mom, or even dating her eventual husband Thomas Sadoski, the Mamma Mia! star bought a house in the upstate New York hamlet of Stone Ridge in 2013—though not least because it seemed like a nice place to raise a family.
Seyfried knew she wanted to have kids, she told Vogue in early 2015, fresh from moving in after extensive renovations on her new-old property. “I want them to go to local schools,” she explained, “and there are some really good schools around here. I would like my life to be the same as it is now, but with a little less stress and a little less work.”
Alas, she remained in high demand, though she has purposely been choosing quality over quantity, winning an Emmy for her turn as disgraced entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout and scoring Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her performance as silent screen star Marion Davies in 2020’s Mank.
But the rest of Seyfried’s plan unfolded accordingly, as if she had ESPN or something.
The actress, who’s turning 39 on Dec. 3, shares daughter Nina, 7, and son Thomas, 4, with Sadoski, whom she met in 2015 when they costarred in Neil LaBute‘s The Way We Get By Off-Broadway.
And when they married in 2017, she already lived near the good schools, so there was no need to change that.
“Staying here was the best decision for privacy, peace and nature,” Seyfried told Forbes in November of the home she now shares with three other humans and numerous animals roughly two hours north of Manhattan. “It offers a more balanced life than the city does.”
The family’s menagerie still includes Seyfried’s now-15-year-old Australian Shepherd Finn, the constant in her life when everything else was in flux earlier in her career.
“Having Finn to come home to when I was in my 20s in Hollywood helped keep me grounded,” Seyfreid said. “My pets truly keep me balanced.”
Back in 2016 the actress said that she and Sadoski planned to get a goat and a pig—”They’re going to grow up together,” she told Allure, “so there shouldn’t be trouble”—plus, they already had four chickens, a rooster and two recently rescued cats.
And Seyfried was already loving country-esque life, gushing over the “cute strip mall” and cozy vibe.
“There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts, a reflexology place,” she shared. “Even the grocery store is special. It’s the classic small-town grocery. There’s a lot of local things happening. And then I go to the farm stand. Everything you get is absolutely local. But I also have a garden.”
Importantly, while she has no plans to stop working in Hollywood—”‘Mamma Mia 3,’ let’s go, baby,” she enthusiastically told ABC News Live in October of the possibility of another sequel—living far from the hustle and bustle has ensured that when duty does call, she doesn’t get too overwhelmed.
And Seyfried was already loving country-esque life, gushing over the “cute strip mall” and cozy vibe.
“There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts, a reflexology place,” she shared. “Even the grocery store is special. It’s the classic small-town grocery. There’s a lot of local things happening. And then I go to the farm stand. Everything you get is absolutely local. But I also have a garden.”
Importantly, while she has no plans to stop working in Hollywood—”‘Mamma Mia 3,’ let’s go, baby,” she enthusiastically told ABC News Live in October of the possibility of another sequel—living far from the hustle and bustle has ensured that when duty does call, she doesn’t get too overwhelmed.
Having a “peaceful place to call home,” she told Forbes, means she can better acclimate “to the faster lifestyle of the city, the high-energy of press events and life on-set.”
When Seyfried has to stay in the city, “It’s been fun to dress up my very neutral apartment with my daughter’s artwork,” she told House Beautiful in October of her NYC pad, recounting how her personal palette was mostly blacks, whites and grays before becoming a mom. But “after I had kids, I knew I needed to go out of my comfort zone. I really, really love pinks and neons.”
She could do without any color on her white kitchen cabinets, though, noting that “if you drip spaghetti sauce on it or even water or coffee, you got to clean it up right away. But nobody is as focused on the cabinets as I am. And that’s okay. I do not fault that, to each their own.”
Seyfried has spoken candidly about her struggles with anxiety and having OCD, telling Allure she still had moments of “debilitating” insecurity when she wonders why in the world anyone is interested in taking her picture.
But she does like the dressing-up part of the business, when so much of the picture-taking happens.
The red carpet is “loud and unnatural,” Seyfried told Vogue in 2015, “but I do still get excited when I put on the chosen dress for the evening because I feel confident. Fashion can do that to you.”
She has been a face of Givenchy and Miu Miu, as well as a global brand ambassador for Lancôme since 2019. And for this year’s Met Gala she asked for a sustainable look, hence her silver Prada dress repurposing material from the Italian design house’s spring 2009 collection.
“My team, I let them do whatever the eff they want,” Seyfried, who also sported a silver hairpiece, told E! News at the gala. “They’re artists. I’m the model. We have fun. Tonight’s the night to celebrate whatever it is you want to celebrate.
It’s also just more fun attending events knowing “the next day I’ll be home and even happier in my boots in the mud feeding the animals,” Seyfried told Forbes.
Since she keeps her kids off social media, it’s the animals who provide the aw fodder for her 6.1 million Instagram followers, though Nina and Thomas are in those pictures in spirit.
“I can see them learning what a responsibility and treat it is to care for pets, even at their young ages,” Seyfriend said. “I think all pets give us purpose. And because they do so much to enrich our lives, we are responsible for theirs—which includes managing their health and wellness.”
A fair trade, since it’s so much easier for Seyfried to manage her own health and wellness on the farm she calls home.
And Seyfried is hardly alone when it comes to letting distance make the heart grow fonder for acting. See more stars who’ve left Hollywood—whether physically or metaphorically—to keep it extra real when they’re off camera:
Ian Somerhalder
The Vampire Diaries alum hasn’t sunk his teeth into a new role since Netflix’s 2019 series V-Wars. Instead, the dad of two (with wife Nikki Reed) has dug a little deeper into a passion project, namely his mission to combat climate change by improving the world’s soil.
“I stepped away from acting a little over four years ago to raise my kids, build my companies and get these films launched,” Somerhalder told E! News in November 2023 of launching the 2020 documentary Kiss the Ground and its follow up Common Ground, each detailing the need for regenerative farming.
When he looks years down the road, he continued, “I will be a rancher and building legacy brands, whether it’s my bourbon or my health and wellness company, and the regenerative agriculture and healthy soil management practices that I live by and our family lives by. That’s where my life was going. So when people say ‘Why do you care?’ That’s why I care. Because that’s who I am, that’s what I’m going to become.”
Evangeline Lilly
The Ant-Man and the Wasp star announced she’s taking an indefinite hiatus from acting after 20 years in the industry.
“I am so filled with joy and contentment today as I live out my vision,” Evangeline wrote on Instagram June 3. “I feel so grateful for my blessings. Stepping away from what seems like the obvious choice (wealth and fame) can feel scary at times, but stepping into your dharma replaces the fear with fulfillment.”
But she isn’t necessarily shutting the door, either, adding, “I might return to Hollywood one day, but, for now, this is where I belong.”
Jennette McCurdy
On a February 2021 episode of her podcast Empty Inside, the iCarly alum told guest Anna Faris that she decided to stop acting a few years back and is now focused on opportunities in writing and directing, in addition to hosting the podcast.
“My experience with acting is, I’m so ashamed of the parts I’ve done in the past,” revealed Jennette, who detailed her experience in her 2022 memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died. “I resent my career in a lot of ways. I feel so unfulfilled by the roles that I played and felt like it was the most cheesy, embarrassing. I did the shows that I was on from like 13 to 21, and by 15, I was already embarrassed. My friends at 15, they’re not like, ‘Oh, cool, you’re on this Nickelodeon show.’ It was embarrassing.”
Though she hasn’t totally written off a second act. “I do feel like only through writing the book have I gotten to a place where I think there might be a way of exploring acting that doesn’t carry that baggage that I carried with me for so long,” she told E! News in October 2022. “Maybe if I write something for myself. I think that’d really be maybe one of the only ways I could kind of try exploring it again.”
Meghan Markle
This felt like something of a no-brainer. If we had a shot to marry Prince Harry, dedicate our life to the philanthropic causes that matter most to us and gain access to the Queen’s impressive collection of tiaras, bidding ta-ta to Tinseltown would feel like an okay sacrifice.
Following in the path Grace Kelly took from Hollywood to the Palace of Monaco, Markle left behind her home in Toronto—and her breakout role on Suits—for a life in The Firm. Though, now that she and Harry have shed their senior roles, she’s edging back into the business thanks to business moves like their multi-year production deal with Netflix.
Cameron Diaz
Having made upwards of 40 movies since her debut in 1994’s The Mask, the actress was long overdue for a break when filming wrapped on 2014’s Annie. “I just decided that I wanted different things out of my life,” she explained to pal Gwyneth Paltrow of her ultimate act of self-care. “I had gone so hard for so long, working, making films and it’s such a grind. When you’re making a movie—it’s a perfect excuse—they own you. You’re there for 12 hours a day for months on end and you have no time for anything else.”
And there was plenty more she’d like to explore, from writing (she followed up her 2013 New York Times best-seller The Body Book with 2016’s The Longevity Book) to starting a family with husband Benji Madden. But while she confessed to InStyle in 2019, “I don’t miss performing. Right now I’m looking at the landscape of wellness and all that,” apparently she could be swayed into making at least one encore.
“We just begged and pleased on my knees, like, ‘Just give the people one more again,'” Jamie Foxx told E! News of getting Diaz to sign on for the upcoming Netflix film Back in Action. “We love her, we’ve been waiting on her and this is just gonna be fantastic.”
Terrence Howard
The actor insisted there’d be no encore after he finished his five-year run on Empire. When Extra asked the Oscar nominee about his future ahead of the musical drama series’ sixth and final season in 2019, he responded, “Oh, I’m done with acting. I’m done pretending.”
And though he returned to set for a handful of projects, he again announced his plans to quit acting while promoting his Peacock series The Best Man: The Final Chapters in 2022. “I’ve gotten to the point where now I’ve given the very best that I have as an actor,” he told ET. “Now I’m enjoying watching other new talent come around, and I don’t want to do an impersonation of myself.”
Jack Gleeson
Once his time as King Joffrey came to a sudden, purple-faced end in 2014, the then-21-year-old told EW he was getting out of the game. “I’ve been acting since age 8,” the Game of Thrones star explained of his decision. “I just stopped enjoying it as much as I used to.”
No longer a child star, a bit of the magic had worn off. “Now there’s the prospect of doing it for a living, whereas up until now it was always something I did for recreation with my friends, or in the summer for some fun,” he continued. “I enjoyed it. When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It’s not like I hate it, it’s just not what I want to do.”
But after a six-year break, he was ready to resume his reign, joining the cast of BBC’s series Out of Her Mind in 2020.
Phoebe Cates
When Fast Times at Ridgemont High‘s dream girl (Jennifer Aniston took on her part in September 2020’s virtual table read) wed fellow actor Kevin Kline in 1989, they “agreed to alternate so that we’re never working at the same time,” he told Playboy of their plan to care for son Owen and daughter Greta (a singer who now goes by the stage name Frankie Cosmos).
However, he continued, “whenever it’s been her slot to work, Phoebe has chosen to stay with the children.” Though she made a cameo in pal Jennifer Jason Leigh‘s 2001 indie The Anniversary Party, Cates devotes most of her time to operating her New York City boutique Blue Tree.
Rick Moranis
At the height of his Ghostbusters and Honey, I… fame, the ’80s star stepped away from filmmaking not long after his wife passed away from breast cancer in 1991 to focus on raising his kids Rachel and Mitchell.
Though he hasn’t had a live-action role since 1997, even passing on a cameo in Paul Feig‘s 2016 Ghostbusters remake, he’s remained a treasured cultural icon, as evidenced by the outrage over reports that he’d been assaulted while walking in New York City Oct. 1.
Thankfully there’s good news for fans: he’ll make his triumphant return alongside Josh Gad in the forthcoming Disney reboot Shrunk.
Leelee Sobieski
Once she wed fashion designer Adam Kimmel in 2010, the Never Been Kissed standout hinted that she was maybe kinda done with movies. “Ninety percent of acting roles involve so much sexual stuff with other people, and I don’t want to do that,” she explained to Vogue. “It’s such a strange fire to play with, and our relationship is surely strong enough to handle it, but if you’re going to walk through fire, there has to be something incredible on the other side.”
Her decision was solidified after son Martin joined older sister Louisanna in 2014. “I don’t do movie stuff anymore. I am totally an outsider! I … am just a mom and an outsider,” she noted to Us Weekly at a 2016 event, explaining that she helps Kimmel with his business and paints on the side. “I am just focused on my kids. I think that’s mainly why I stopped.”
Portia de Rossi
She’d done Ally McBeal. And Nip/Tuck. Then Arrested Development and finally Scandal when the Aussie realized that maybe she was ready to turn the dial.
“I was approaching 45 and I just kind of…was wondering is there something that I could tackle now that I’ve never done before that would be really challenging and different,” she explained on wife Ellen DeGeneres‘ eponymous talk show in 2018. “I kind of knew what acting would look like for me for the next 10, 20 years, so I decided to quit and start a business.”
Her consumer-art company, General Public, already a work in progress, she had just one piece to finish.
“I called Mitch Hurwitz, who’s the creator of Arrested Development and I said, ‘If there is a season 5, I won’t be doing it because I quit acting. And he seemed really understanding and he totally got it. We had a great conversation, and then he wrote me into five episodes.”
Daniel Day-Lewis
To be fair, once you’ve won three Academy Awards, what’s left to accomplish? Shortly after receiving his sixth Oscar nod for his final film, 2017’s Phantom Thread, the thespian had his rep issue a statement informing fans that he “will no longer be working as an actor. He is immensely grateful to all of his collaborators and audiences over the many years. This is a private decision and neither he nor his representatives will make any further comment on this subject.”
But just when he thought he was out, his son pulled him back in, production company Focus Features announcing in October 2024 that the Oscar winner would star in Anemone, the film he wrote alongside son Ronan Day-Lewis, who will also direct.
Bridgit Mendler
The Good Luck Charlie alum took a step back from the spotlight in 2018 when she began pursuing a master’s degree from MIT, later earning a PhD from the institution. She’s also pursuing a law degree from Harvard Law School.
And as if that weren’t enough, Bridgit also launched her own startup Northwood Space, which aims to build ground satellite stations to help send and receive data from space, becoming CEO of the brand in February 2023.
