Originally appeared on E! Online
Amanda Seyfried was sick of city life.
And that was why almost ten years ago, the "Mean Girls" actress swapped the hustle and bustle of life in New York City and Los Angeles for a quaint farm in upstate New York. With no one but her beloved pup Finn by her side, the then-20-something never looked back.
“I moved upstate long before I had a family,” Amanda, 38, told Forbes in an interview published Nov. 3. “Staying here was the best decision for privacy, peace and nature. It offers a more balanced life than the city does.”
But that’s not all. The "Les Misérables" alum — who shares daughter Nina, 7, and son Thomas, 4, with husband Thomas Sadoski — found that living in the great outdoors has been “essential for my mental health.”
And having the escape has made it easier when she has to jump into work, which often includes “the faster lifestyle of the city, the high-energy of press events and life on-set.”
Plus, it’s where she unwinds afterwards. Indeed, as she admitted, the day after a glamorous trip, Seyfried can be found "home and even happier in my boots in the mud feeding the animals.”
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Now that the "Mamma Mia!" star is a mamma herself, watching her kiddos help care for the family’s animals, grow produce and connect with nature has made the experience even more rewarding.
“I can see them learning what a responsibility and treat it is to care for pets, even at their young ages,” she explained. “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.”
Seyfried’s not the only star who has packed their bags in search of a simple life.
After all, Pamela Anderson recently shared that returning to her hometown of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, four years ago allowed her to reconnect with herself.
"I guess it was a homecoming, you could say," the "Baywatch" alum, 57, told Women's Wear Daily in an interview published Oct. 29, "to really kind of look at my life and remember who I was — not what other people were telling me I was. I didn't want anything that had happened to me define me. I wanted what I do to define me."
