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Amy Adams and the Benefits of Doubt
Photo: AMPAS
Whereas most celebrities take pains to hide their personal relationships from the press, 34-year-old Amy Adams brings hers along to breakfast. This morning, she has shown up for an interview at her local Sunset Boulevard eatery with her betrothed, actor Darren Le Gallo, in tow. “He was hungry,” she explains with a sunny smile. Adams made her name playing a character with a similar sense of cheerful openness in 2005’s indie hit Junebug. As the pregnant motormouth Ashley, the only member of a deeply Southern family to welcome a new sister-in-law into the fold, she won the hearts of audiences at Sundance and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also established herself as the go-to girl in Hollywood to play a wide variety of persevering optimists, including Giselle, the fairytale beauty lost in New York in Disney’s 2007 musical comedy Enchanted.
At today’s breakfast, Adams has much to smile about, given her two starring roles alongside Meryl Streep, first in John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt and next in Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, due out this year. She also recently wrapped Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, in which she plays Amelia Earhart. While Adams’ fiancé sketches an elaborate crowd scene on the paper tablecloth, the strawberry-haired ingénue quotes Gershwin, reflects on life in her 30s and sheds a few—mostly happy—tears.
Cristy Lytal (MM): You grew up in a big family. How did that affect your career choice?
Amy Adams (AA): I think the type of family I was raised in had more of an effect on my career choice. We were always encouraged to find something that we wished to do and then try and excel at it.
MM: How did you decide to become an actress?
AA: I always wanted to perform. I did musical theater until I was 24, as a dancer. Usually, it was the featured chorus role, but then I got the lead part at the dinner theater, and that was my launch pad!
MM: What was dinner theater like?
AA: It smelled… at least, occasionally. They should really remove the fish dishes, because that is not pleasant! (laughs) I actually loved it. I didn’t know anything else, so for me that was my Broadway. I took it very seriously and it’s a big part of why I was able to have the stamina to keep going out here in L.A. when things weren’t going well. I’m a worker bee.
MM: Do you want to do more musicals?
AA: I’d do exclusively musicals if they’d let me, because musicals are perfect in that every one of them has a comedic element, a dramatic element and singing and dancing. “Who could ask for anything more?” to quote Gershwin! Usually I don’t have Darren here, and now he’s just blushing for me.
MM: So what swayed you to come to L.A. 10 years ago as opposed to Broadway?
AA: I worked on a film, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and I had a really good time. It coincided with a pulled muscle, and I was tired from eight shows a week. So I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll go to L.A. for a little while and see how it goes.’
MM: It went well considering you soon found yourself in 2002’s Catch Me If You Can. Did being in a Steven Spielberg movie change your fortunes as an actor?
AA: It wasn’t like I had all these roles that were available to me, but the reason I was considered for Junebug is because the director saw me in Catch Me If You Can. For me, as an actress, my personal breakthrough was Junebug. It was the year when I learned that I wasn’t willing to be unhappy to be an actress. I was turning 30 that year, and I was thinking, ‘What do I want? This is my life.’
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by on 7/14/09 at 9:32 am
I love Amy Adams. She’s a great actress and is great on Enchanted and Night at the Museum 2. I look forward to seeing her with a more serious roles
- Comment by erbs palsy on 8/11/09 at 8:52 am
I think Amy Adams is a great actor and in an early age I think her career is just starting. She has a certain charm and the way she portrays her roles makes the character very believable.
- Comment by sonia on 8/19/09 at 8:45 am
I think its a nice change that Amy doesn’t attempt to hide anything about her relationships like others. It just means that she doesn’t have to constantly fight the media in hiding stories.
- Comment by bluesea on 2/20/10 at 5:05 pm
Thanks for this informative Topic
Keep it up- Comment by bluesea on 2/20/10 at 5:10 pm
Thanks for this informative Topic
Keep it up- Comment by toplist on 6/10/10 at 7:44 am
Who pays the piper calls the tune
- Comment by logo on 8/24/11 at 4:40 am
Nice article
Thank you very much I am happy to read this article ..
شات | منتديات- Comment by sniper2 on 9/27/11 at 4:54 pm
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This story was published in the Fall 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Benefit of Doubt
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