Long Bright River star Amanda Seyfried reveals harrowing experience during police ride-along

Amanda Seyfried went to extremes to prepare for a her first cop role – and it saw her experience something “very tragic”.

IN LONDON

For her first time playing a cop, Amanda Seyfried was determined to get it right.

The actress, 39, has shown off a diverse range across her decades-long career – from Mean Girls’ Karen to biotech fraudster Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout – but when the script for Long Bright River landed in her lap, she took her role prep to a whole other level.

Seyfried joined actual police officers on the job, travelling in the passenger seat with them during shifts to experience what they did first-hand.

“I always knew what they [cops] were up against, but from that … oh my God,” she told news.com.au ahead of the release of Long Bright River on Stan, describing it as “very, very, very helpful” to see how they reacted to emergency situations.

Seyfried became emotional as she detailed the ride-along experience. Picture: Supplied/Stan

However, there was one moment that left her very shaken up.

“And then the latter part of the day we had … I don’t know how to say it. I can’t. Something very tragic happened and we had to go to the scene and it was … oh, God,” an emotional Seyfried trailed off.

“It was like, oh, it’s just so human. Just real people. But they [cops] put on these uniforms and people look at them differently, and it’s just … it’s beautiful when people really take their job seriously and they have that integrity. When they treat people with dignity, when a lot of people wouldn’t.”

The actress appears as Philadelphia police officer Mickey. Picture: Supplied/Stan

While she was clearly emotionally impacted by what she witnessed during her day on the beat with the real-life police, she was quick to add that they were “very protective” of her.

Long Bright River is based on the best-selling novel by the same name, and sees Seyfried play Mickey, a police officer with a complex family history, who patrols a Philadelphia neighbourhood hard-hit by the opioid crisis and marred by a recent spate of murders.

The actress, who also serves as executive producer on the eight-part limited series, is joined by Nicholas Pinnock, Australian actress Ashleigh Cummings, Callum Vinson, and John Doman.

Aussie actress Ashleigh Cummings plays her sister, Kacey. Picture: Supplied/Stan

According to Seyfried, the area of Philadelphia focused upon in Long Bright River, Kensington, is one that too many people view as “a mess that needs to be cleaned up”, when “actually real people live there, and they support each other.”

“We impose so much of our ideals onto neighbourhoods, and people that feel other than us, when it’s not really the case at all.

“I hope we show a side of this community that hasn’t been seen before. I think that’s really unique about the show, it’s so realistic … I really needed to tell [this story] when this opportunity came up.”

While clearly passionate about the project, Seyfried admitted that the gruelling four-month schedule which included almost no days off was intense.

“I don’t think I had enough space between days to give a piece of me to anybody,” she explained.

“I was away from my kids five days a week, and I think that was the smartest thing I could have done, even though it felt really hard – I don’t think I had much to offer because I was in this world, and I don’t like to separate my life.”

She added: “But in this instance, it was really helpful to everyone that I stay focused and very tight-knit in this tight-knit group … we all wanted to tell this story a very specific way. But yeah, it was a lot.”

All episodes of Long Bright River are available to stream now on Stan.