Seyfried says her character is the “nastiest version of herself” in this clip from the upcoming twisty thriller.

Sydney Sweeney catches Amanda Seyfried in a shocking lie in The Housemaid sneak peek (exclusive)

Seyfried says her character is the "nastiest version of herself" in this clip from the upcoming twisty thriller.

By Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff is an award-winning journalist and staff writer at ** with over 12 years of experience covering all facets of the entertainment industry.

EW's editorial guidelines

November 19, 2025 10:00 a.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Lies, deceit, betrayal, intrigue... *The Housemaid *has it all and then some. As star Amanda Seyfried puts it, the movie delights in taking its characters — and the audience — "to the f---ing edge."

Still, the psychological thriller delivers all its juicy twists and turns with director Paul Feig's signature winking humor. "You take your best psychological thriller and you add kind of wicked laughter to it in the first half," Seyfried tells *.* "I do put this up there with the most unique movies of this genre for sure."

No moment in the film adaptation of Freida McFadden's best-seller encapsulates that unique tone better than the clip above. Debuting exclusively with **, the scene finds upper-crust mom Nina Winchester (Seyfried) hosting a tea party for her fellow PTA ladies in her gorgeous suburban mansion.**

Amanda Seyfried in 'The Housemaid'.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

"The room has been transformed. Neat as a pin, the table beautifully set, food arranged on platters, flowers in the center," reads the script, which Feig personally annotated for EW (see below). In one of the director's handwritten notes, he teases, "We wanted our PTA ladies to represent all the things that Nina hates about her life. But to also be funny!"

To that end, we overhear one of the women, Patrice, complaining about her help. "The nanny kept going on and on about her dead dog, and I don't mean to sound like a b-i-t-c-h, but how am I suddenly her canine grief counselor?" she tells the women, who "cluck sympathetically."

"We loved that they cared more about Patrice missing her yoga class than the poor nanny," Feig notes in the margins.**

Paul Feig breaks down the PTA scene in 'The Housemaid'.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Paul Feig breaks down the PTA scene from 'The Housemaid'.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Later, Nina's new housemaid, Millie (Sydney Sweeney), eavesdrops out of sight as her boss tells the women about her plans to get pregnant. As the moms congratulate her, Feig cuts to a close-up on Millie (see script above), whose "eyes widen." That's because earlier in the film, Nina had made a point of telling her that she was *already* pregnant.

"I think Millie, and excuse the language, she's basically like, *What the f? Have you been lying to me this entire time?*" Sweeney tells EW. "At this point, Millie is still very uncertain about her new placement, about this woman, about this family. She, of course, wants to just roll her eyes with this group of women because they're not her cup of tea at all. She does not run in these circles whatsoever. And so she's kind of just there as a fly on the wall, and then she gets a little bit of information that makes her start to question absolutely *everything*."

Sydney Sweeney and 'Christy' team didn't want to 'Hollywoodize' the true survivor story

Amanda Seyfried had 6 auditions for 'Wicked' before losing role to Ariana Grande

Seyfried adds, "It's such a contrast because you've got Millie doing her job, and my character at this point just being the nastiest version of herself, whether it's for manipulative effect or just because she's bats---, and it's also just Nina possibly performing too in front of these PTA bitches. So you just don't really know what's up at this point."

And that's exactly how Nina wants it. "I think she's trying to create an element of surprise and intrigue with Millie because she's talking about the pregnancy not having taken place yet," Seyfried says. "So she leaves a little crumb for Millie, and this is when Millie starts to realize that things are not as they seem, and we don't realize she's doing that obviously until later, but in this scene, you just realize that Nina starts to become somebody that we don't trust in a real way."**

Sydney Sweeney in 'The Housemaid'.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

To say much more, as fans of McFadden's novel will know, would spoil the fun. Still, both stars promise readers will be pleased — and maybe a little surprised, too. "I think that they're going to be very happy with how true we've stayed with the book and how much we've respected the book, but also we wanted to give the audience a few treats as well," Sweeney teases.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

"I loved the script [by Rebecca Sonnenshine] so much," Seyfried adds. "The similarities are enhanced, and there's a little bit of extra twists and turns that weren't necessarily in the book in this way."

See how the mystery unfolds when *The Housemaid *sweeps into theaters on Dec. 19.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Movies”