Chaos, camp and unrestrained power crash through every melodramatic note — and every broken dish — in “The Housemaid.” Amanda Seyfried — beloved by queer audiences for “Mean Girls,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Jennifer’s Body” — hurls objects, loses fingernails and radiates a deliciously unhinged energy, while director Paul Feig clearly revels in each shattered plate and theatrical beat. The result is a film that’s messy, thrilling and gloriously over-the-top. It’s exactly the kind of cinematic joyride queer audiences live for.
Based on the hit book series, the film opens with Nina (Seyfried) interviewing Millie (Sydney Sweeney) for a housemaid position in her sprawling New York City home. There’s a hot husband who can’t manage a takeout order, a bratty child born into unchecked privilege and… well, plenty more that can’t be said without wandering into spoiler territory. (Some mild spoilers ahead — consider yourself warned.)
Feig — whose work, from “Bridesmaids” to “A Simple Favor,” has long carried an innate queerness simmering beneath glossy surfaces — is known to flip stereotypes and keep audiences deliciously off balance. It’s a reminder of why his films resonate so deeply with LGBTQ+ viewers: extreme characters, sharp humor and the freedom to be messy, complicated and fully human, all celebrated without apology.
In conversation, Seyfried and Feig dive into the queer-minded sensibilities shaping their work, the psychodrama, the camp-soaked meltdowns and the genre-bending storytelling that keeps viewers laughing, gasping and guessing at every turn. “These bitches just go for it,” Seyfried says — and the on-screen energy proves her right.
Watching Amanda throw things in the kitchen — what did that feel like?
Paul Feig: Greatest day of my life.
Amanda Seyfried: I was struggling with that scene. I was so nervous about it, because I needed to show all the things. I was afraid. I read the scene in the script and I was like, “Oh, it’s a doozy,” but then after a couple of takes, I was like, “Oh, I can really do anything?”
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Feig: You broke some dishes.
A few dishes were broken in this movie.
Feig: Exactly.
Seyfried: And there’s a real moment in there where I lose my nail, and I’m like, the nails are such a thing to put on in real life and for the character, and when I lost it, I was like, “No!” It was really, honestly just life-affirming to be able to be an actor and get to play like that.
Feig: My favorite line is, “And now my nails are fucked!”
You really do get pretty messy in this movie, Amanda. I’ve been describing your role as “delicious.”
Seyfried: I’ve been using that to describe how it felt to play her. Because it was definitely a very unique role. I think that there aren’t that many roles where people are really broken, where [an actor is] performing a crazy person. It just doesn’t exist. It is a very niche story, I believe, even though it’s a thriller. Paul, all he does is bend genres.
I was thinking of something you once said while I watched this that became a cultural moment. You joked that, “I exist to make the gays happy,” so I wanted to ask you, what about “The Housemaid” do you think helps prove that existence?
Seyfried: I said that? I think I was being ironic. But, again, I think it’s these bitches just fucking going for it. To own the power and see this kind of eruption of compassion between these women and the storytelling style with which everything is being told, it’s the most fun, full-circle experience.
Feig: Well, I also think she’s so deliciously unpredictable in the movie, and that’s what’s fun. If Nina, for the first hour, was just balls out mean, then the audience is like, “All right, whatever.”
Seyfried: Psychological manipulation at its scariest.
There also is the element of camp, of course. Some of it feels very “Real Housewives of New York City.”
Seyfried: I think the humor is what gets everybody. It’s the sense of humor in it, really infused very potently within the drama, and this psychodrama is so important and elevates the whole thing, and it makes you pee laughing at times when you’re like, “Wait, this is weird. This is very abstract,” and you almost are confused as to what you’re witnessing, and I think that’s powerful, for sure.
Paul, you’ve said that you feel aligned with queerness in spirit and culture. How does that show up in your creative decision-making, especially in a film like this that deals with identity and perception?
Feig: Yeah. I mean, I love things on the extreme, and I like extreme characters, and I also love the idea of taking stereotypes and twisting them on their head. I like to introduce you to a bunch of people, you go, “I know exactly who they are. She’s the kooky, sweet housewife, she’s the innocent girl, he’s the perfect husband,” and then make you regret all those judgments that you made.
Seyfried: Yeah. At the end of the day, you just end up questioning your own perception of things, and it just broadens your focus. That’s always important. Everything’s a little bit of a lesson without it trying to be.
Feig: We hide the pill in the peanut butter, basically.
Seyfried: Yeah. And then, can we just talk about “I Did Something Bad”? It is perfect. I squealed at the end of the movie.
Feig: And thank you, Taylor, for letting us use it, because Taylor will not let you use something if she doesn’t like what she sees.
Seyfried: Oh god, I was so excited. I do think we could turn it into a dance party. I do feel like “The Housemaid” should have those screenings where there’s a disco light that comes down because it makes you so happy. It makes you feel really empowered, really satisfied and really kind of floating, because you’ve had this whole experience and now you’ve got Taylor Swift.
By the end of the movie — and spoiler alert for those who don’t know the story — my hope is that Millie and Nina have decided that men were more trouble than they’re worth, and that they could just have their lesbian exit.
Seyfried: To be continued. Here’s the thing: In the next book, Millie becomes very tight with Enzo, and they’re a couple, and so maybe the cool twist that we give the second “Housemaid” [movie] is that we’re on the rocks and we live together. Whether we’re lesbians or not, we’re definitely companions and we live together with [Nina’s daughter] Cece.
There could be a very modern fluidity to all of it.
Seyfried: Yes. I mean, that’s the thing: “The Housemaid 2” can’t be anything, but it can be enhanced, which is what Paul did with this movie. Brought it to life in a new way. Nailed it.
Feig: You can’t lose with a cast like this.
What has the LGBTQ+ community taught you over the years about yourself, your work and how your characters land with audiences?
Seyfried: I guess the more truthful you are, the more grounded you are as a character, the more of an effect you have on people and audiences, and especially just to be true to who you are is everything. It’s freedom and my own acceptance of my own self-acceptance.
There are a lot of characters that I’ve played that I know have had an incredible effect on the queer community, especially with “Mamma Mia!” and “Mean Girls” and I feel like it’s a gift to have been able to do those, and it is tenfold when I’m just accepted as an artist who… I don’t know. I just feel like the world is safer. I’m a straight fucking average female, but I can be anything, because I feel like I’m safe in this community.
Feig: Yeah, I mean, my life is so much richer because of the LGBTQ+ community. The majority of my friends are gay. They are the most wonderful people. They’ve made my wife and I’s life so much richer. I get emotional about it, because everything I do, I pass by my friends to see how it plays with them, and everyone’s so open and accepting.
Seyfried: It’s celebratory.
Feig: Yeah. That’s why I donate a lot of money and get very wrapped up in the causes — the whole community from the trans community through the gay community — just because everybody’s so under attack right now, and I fucking hate bullies more than life itself, and anybody who wants to mess with the LGBTQ+ community will have to go through me, because I just do not like that kind of judgment on anybody. Everybody should be themselves and everybody should be happy, and then fuck anybody who tells you [that you can’t be].