Amanda Seyfried shares brutal reason she turned down $2.5B Marvel movie franchise

In 2013, Amanda Seyfried was offered the opportunity to star in a blockbuster movie that would go on to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Astonishingly, however, she turned it down.

The Mamma Mia star, 40, was offered the role of Gamora in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy ahead of its 2014 release, but ultimately passed on the part.

The role would have seen Seyfried play the adopted daughter of the film's villain, Thanos, and a deadly warrior whose species was nearly wiped out.

Instead, the part went to Oscar-winner Zoe Saldaña, who went on to portray Gamora in four further Marvel films, including Avengers: Endgame, in which she played an alternate-timeline version of the character, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2023.

This week, Seyfried opened up about the fears that prompted her to turn down the role in the first place, admitting she harboured fears over the franchise's reputation and didn't want it to permanently affect the trajectory of her career.

Zoe Saldaña was given the role (Marvel)

Speaking during a Q&A with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the Housemaid actress admitted she struggled to imagine audiences embracing a film featuring a talking tree and a wisecracking raccoon travelling through space.

"I think turning down Guardians of the Galaxy was just so obvious to me at the time," she confessed. "I’m like: 'This is not going to be a hit. The tree and the raccoon are talking to each other. And also they’re all in space.'

"And I was just like, 'This will ruin my career if this is bad. And there’s a high chance that this could be bad'."

Well, we all know how that turned out.

The film became a box-office smash, spawning two sequels and cementing its place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The wider franchise has since generated billions worldwide.

Seyfried went on to boast an illustrious career following her rejection (Chris Haston/NBC via Getty Images)

But despite admitting she got it wrong, Seyfried has made it clear that she has absolutely no regrets about turning down the opportunity.

"I mean, obviously I was wrong," she laughed. "But I still don’t take back that decision. I made it for myself. I made it for my family that I knew I wanted to have. And I just don’t want to spend all the time in the make-up trailer."

Seyfried went on to tell attendees: "I just can’t sit still anyway. I really don’t like stunts, and I don’t like heights, and I don’t like pretending the entire world. I need something to hold on to."

Instead, the actress has continued to build an impressive career across film and television, starring in cult favourites including Mean Girls and both Mamma Mia films, before earning critical acclaim for Les Misérables, Mank and her Emmy-winning performance as Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout.

Her decision might have cost her a place in Marvel history, but it certainly hasn’t stopped her from making her mark in Hollywood.