Remember that sweet, blue-eyed girl in "Mama Mia" and "Dear John"? Amanda Seyfried shows a very different side of her character in "Gone" (opening Fri. Feb. 24). As Jill, a young woman who may or may not have made up a tale of her own abduction by a serial killer, Seyfried plays a tough cookie who knows how to use a gun and isn't afraid to pull the trigger. When her sister Molly is apparently abducted, and possibly by the same bad guy whom the cops have already dismissed as fictional, it's up to Jill to save the day -- if, in fact, Molly has really been abducted. Twisty, huh? 

While Seyfried knows she might not have seemed like the most obvious choice to play Jill, she relished the opportunity to play a character who not only kicks ass, but carries the entire movie. While there's a strong supporting cast (including "Dexter"'s Jennifer Carpenter and "American Beauty" star Wes Bentley), Jill is largely a lone wolf, staying one step ahead of the cops who doubt her sanity as she tries to unravel what really happened to her sister. "You've got to cut what everyone thinks of you and diversify as much as possible," Seyfried explained, although she admitted it was a "bummer" to have so many scenes entirely on her own. 

Even though "Gone" is suspense-filled, the good news for the squeamish is that the PG-13 movie is scary without being gory -- and that's fine with its star. "I love this genre," she said. "But I don't like blood and guts."

Not that she doesn't have a sense of humor about fighting bad guys. When I asked her, jokingly, if she was now prepared to do battle with bad guys, she deadpanned, "No, especially if they take me at night. I'm really vulnerable at night." 

We also talked briefly about her two new projects - a biopic about porn star Linda Lovelace (co-starring Mary- Louise Parker, James Franco and Peter Sarsgaard) the musical version of "Les Miserables," in which she'll sing again. Though she didn't offer any spoilers, she did admit there's "no correlation" between her independent woman character in "Gone" and Lovelace's tragic true story. Well, other than the fact Seyfried, always looking for the next challenge, is in them both.