Amanda Seyfried didn't grow up with dogs. With her busy work schedule, she didn't think she could take care of a canine. In fact, she wasn't looking for a furry friend at all.
But then she met Finn. Today, the 30-year-old actress — who's known for films Mamma Mia and Ted 2, and stars as Russell Crowe's daughter in new drama Fathers and Daughters out July 8 -- is both a dog owner and an ambassador at welfare organization Best Friends Animal Society.
"I can't imagine my life without him," Seyfried says of 6-and-a-half-year-old Australian shepherd Finn. "He's in my contract for every (acting) job," to be allowed on U.S. sets.
Finn, whom Seyfried met through a production coordinator on HBO show Big Love, "has always been good on set," she says. If for some reason he can't join Seyfried on location — like on a recent trip when she traveled from France to China — the two Facetime regularly, and Seyfried requests twice-daily videos from her dog sitter.
Yep, she's a helicopter dog mother now. And with a new video for Best Friends Animal Society, she also calls herself Finn's "stage mother."
Seyfried and Finn shot an '80s-themed video for the initiative Strut Your Mutt and the #9000StepsChallenge, which asks animal owners to walk 9,000 steps with their pets on the ninth day of the month to raise awareness to the fact that more than 9,000 dogs and cats are killed in shelters each day, because there's not enough room. That high death toll of animals "is an important thing to know when you’re looking for your best friend," Seyfried says.
As for the video shoot, in which Seyfried and Finn wore matching headbands and walked the 9,000 steps — it was more exhausting than a long walk. Seyfried, who acted as Finn's trainer on the shoot, "had to make sure he looked a certain way, (fed) him treats." She thinks that instead of being Finn's co-star, she'll go back to being BFFs.
