Amanda Seyfried casually acknowledged on The Graham Norton Show that her executive producer credit for The Housemaid is a vanity title and that she was unaware of it until three weeks into the filming process. “I didn’t do s–t to make that movie,” she said. “All I did was act in it.”Seyfried clarified that she called one of the movie’s producers right away to ask for an explanation after seeing the credit on a call sheet during filming. “Executive producer? I didn’t sign up for that,” she remarked. He told her, “That’s what your agent negotiated.” She recalled thinking, “Come on, this has to be a hit.”On a reported $35 million budget, The Housemaid has made $374 million worldwide, making it the most commercially successful picture of Seyfried’s career and one of the year’s biggest return-on-investment stories.Seyfried was disarmingly honest about the discrepancy between her title and her actions, which is why the moment landed. By pointing out that fellow guest Margot Robbie, who was also on the show, conducts extensive hands-on development work on the films she produces, she directly contrasted herself with Robbie. “What Margot does is really intensely developing movies from the jump,” Seyfried said. “I simply got in, had a great time, and then departed. Now I’m thinking, ‘They’re sending me on vacation.'”The distinction is significant since, depending on the project, the term “executive producer” encompasses a wide spectrum of involvement. It could refer to someone who funded the movie, someone who packaged the deal, someone whose agent negotiated it as part of their pay, or someone who was actually present throughout the entire development and post-production process. Seyfried made a clear point: she did not want anyone to mistake her negotiated credit for actual producing labor.Paul Feig is the director of The Housemaid, which is based on the 2022 best-selling book by Freida McFadden. Millie Calloway, played by Sydney Sweeney, is a young woman with a criminal past who works as a live-in housemaid for a wealthy couple, Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar) and Nina Winchester (Seyfried). However, she soon learns that the household is concealing something much more dangerous than superficial dysfunction. Elizabeth Perkins portrays Andrew’s mother, and Michele Morrone plays Enzo Accardi, the groundskeeper who turns out to be an unexpected ally.Rebecca Sonnenshine adapted the screenplay, which was produced by Feig and Laura Fischer through Pretty Dangerous Pictures and Todd Lieberman through Hidden Pictures. The film had its premiere at the AXA Equitable Center in New York on December 2, 2025, and Lionsgate released it in theaters on December 19. It is classified as an erotic psychological thriller and has an R rating.