(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Amanda Seyfried says she cried and hyperventilated while she was looking at a piece of wood during a scene for her new movie.

The actress stars as the title character in Red Riding Hood, a big screen adaptation of the classic childrens fairytale. Some of the more elaborate scenes in the film were enhanced by CGI and Amanda admits she struggled to act without any external influences. For one sequence, Amandas character is supposed to be overcome with fear when she sees a werewolf but all the actress had to work with was some wood as the beast was added in later using state of the art technology.

[CGI filming] is exhausting and probably the least fun part of my job, Amanda told Access Hollywood. 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 youre 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 its just really tiring, and Im looking at a piece of wood. I wasnt getting anything. It was all in my head. We did have a Styrofoam wolf called Stuffy that was life-sized - he didnt really help that much!

Amanda also spoke about Leonardo DiCaprio, who was a producer on Red Riding Hood. The 25-year-old star has confessed she was in awe of the actor when he visited the movie set.

The actress compared Leonardo to another Hollywood legend, before revealing he was closely involved in selecting the cast for the film.

When [Leo] came to visit there was a weird tension on set. Everybody was whispering, Hes here! Hes here! You know, hes like a godfather. Hes like [Robert] De Niro to the younger generation of actors, she explained. He was a big part of the casting process, which is good because his input is always wanted. Hes been working for a long time and he makes great choices. (C) Cover Media