Amanda Seyfried Opens Up About 'Bizarre' Panic Attacks Caused by Fame: 'It Feels Like Life or Death'

Amanda Seyfried has evolved from playing a "Plastic" in Mean Girls to a silver screen legend during her nearly two decades in Hollywood.

But the Oscar nominee, 35, recently admitted that she still faces anxiety and panic attacks from being in the Hollywood spotlight. "It feels like life or death," she said on Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist.

"That's what a panic attack is, really," Seyfried continued. "Your body just goes into fight or flight. The endorphin rush and the dump that happens after the panic attack is so extraordinary. You just feel so relieved and your body is just kind of recovered in a way. It's so bizarre because it's physiological, but it starts in your head."

The actress said that she struggled with showing people that she's "normal," adding, "I do not have someone waking me up with breakfast in bed, and I'm not chauffeured around."

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"And every time I meet someone new, I'm just so desperate for them to understand that you can talk to me," Seyfried said. "I wanna connect like everybody else, because I am like everybody else."

Also during her interview, Seyfried's 7-month-old baby boy made an adorable cameo. She said that she has to "squeeze in so much more work" as she does press from home, adding, "The benefits outweigh everything."

The Mank star married her The Last Word costar Thomas Sadoski, 44, in March 2017, and they also share 4-year-old daughter Nina. The family lives on a working farm in the Catskills of Upstate New York, where her mom is the couple's nanny, and they keep collecting farm animals.

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"It was very conscious," she said of setting up her home away from Hollywood. "I've always wanted to live on a farm. I just need to feel grounded somewhere that I can trust will always be there."

The Mean Girls actress also revealed she was asleep when her mom told her about her first Oscar nomination. She recently received an Academy Award nod for Best Supporting Actress, after starring as Marion Davies in David Fincher's Mank, based on the making of Citizen Kane.

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"It hasn't really hit me yet," she admitted. "It's a recognition, it's an achievement that I didn't really set out to expect. I was never desperate for it."

Seyfried can next be seen in the Netflix thriller Things Heard & Seen, which premieres April 29 on the streaming platform. She also recently stepped in for Kate McKinnon, when she was cast as infamous health tech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in the upcoming Hulu limited series The Dropout.