Amanda Seyfried Dishes On Working With Leonardo DiCaprio On ‘Red Riding Hood’: ‘He’s The De Niro To The Younger Generation’

Amanda Seyfried worked with an impressive team as the title character of the upcoming fantasy thriller, “Red Riding Hood.” Led by “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke, the fairy tale reboot was produced by Oscar nominated actor Leonardo DiCaprio, whose regal presence had the crew starstruck.

“When [Leo] came to visit there was a weird tension on set,” Amanda told Access at the junket for the film in Los Angeles on Friday. “Everybody was whispering, ‘He’s here! He’s here!’ You know, he’s like a godfather. He’s like [Robert] De Niro to the younger generation of actors.

“He was a big part of the casting process, which is good because his input is always wanted,” she added. “He’s been working for a long time and he makes great choices.”

Amanda said her handsome co-stars, Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons, received advice from the “Inception” star on how to calm their nerves prior to the initial table read for the film, and revealed that Leo’s support was the deciding factor in bringing on board Shiloh, who was almost cast to play the now iconic role of “Twilight’s” Edward Cullen.

“I’m kind of glad [Shiloh] didn’t get [the role of Edward], because then he wouldn’t have done this movie — and I knew when he came in he was Peter, for me” Amanda told Access. “I had to fight really hard for him. Katherine and I fought for him, and then Leo backed us up.”

While the blond ingenue thoroughly enjoyed being fought over by her hunky co-stars in the film – she refers to their onscreen love triangle as “fantastic!”—Amanda found CGI filming less pleasurable.

“[CGI filming] is exhausting and probably the least fun part of my job,” Amanda told Access. “I say that because our imaginations are all we have in times like those, but I had to have this certain level of fear that is hard to get when you’re not terrified. I had to trick my body into being scared and that was just exhausting.

“I hyperventilated, I [jumped] up and down, and [was] crying, and it’s just really tiring, and I’m looking at a piece of wood,” she continued. “I wasn’t getting anything. It was all in my head. We did have a Styrofoam wolf called ‘Stuffy’ that was life-sized – he didn’t really help that much!”

Catch Amanda, Shiloh and Max in “Red Riding Hood” when it hits theaters on Friday.