Few actors these days really compare to the movie stars of old Hollywood, but Amy Adams
is an exception. However, Adams wasn't always the most obvious candidate for a career as
an actress. Curious about how she became a six-time Oscar nominee? Here is the stunning
transformation of Amy Adams.
Amy Adams certainly didn't have a quiet childhood. After moving around due to her father's job
in the U.S. Army, Adams and her family settled in Castle Rock, Colorado. Adams was the fourth
of seven children, which, as she shared on Late Night with Stephen Colbert, taught her
how to stand out.
"That means I got away with a lot. Exactly, right? We were all desperate for attention,
let's be honest. One of seven kids."
In her early years, Adams was brought up in the Mormon church. As she told the Telegraph,
her only memories of the religion are pretty general. She recalled,
"The basic, 'Do unto others...' — that was hammered into me. And love."
However, Adams' parents divorced when she was 11 years old. After that, she gave up
Mormonism and moved in with family friends during high school as her father had sole
custody of the children.
Unlike many famous actors, Adams wasn't exactly a show-off as a child. In fact, she was pretty
private and timid. As she told Parade,
"I was not a brave child. Everything scared me."
She even refused to ride a bike and gave up gymnastics because of her fear of injury.
Instead of these adventurous pursuits, Adams turned to the world of books. Apparently,
her siblings called her "the dreamer." Adams began with kids' books by Judy Blume, then
moved onto more risqué material — like a series by John Brenton about people with
substance addictions who found themselves doing sex work, which she read when she was
only 12.
Adams also became obsessed with ballet, and at one point she even wanted to become a ballerina.
However, she soon found it was, quote, "too disciplined and too restrained," as she told
Express. And as Adams explained in a chat with Elle,
"I'm too muscley, and I didn't have great turnout, you know?"
"You were not."
Eventually, Adams discovered her true passion: acting. However, it wasn't until she saw Grease
that it really clicked. As she told Parade,
"I wanted to be Sandy pretty bad."
Funnily enough, one Adams' first acting jobs was a Grease inspired bank commercial!
Adams continued to become more and more interested in acting as time went on. Her childhood favorites
were the musicals. And as Adams told Vanity Fair, she used to love A Chorus Line and all
of the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber. She shared,
"I was so entrenched in the high drama."
Additionally, as Adams told Parade, she later saw famous Hitchcock films and was blown away
by the performances of people like Kim Novak. Then, in 1998, Adams was inspired by Cate
Blanchett's performance in Elizabeth. Adams stated,
"[Blanchett] sort of set the bar, the way that she owned the screen."
After spending her childhood immersing herself in dark books and musical theater, Adams finally
took the plunge to pursue her dream of embodying her own characters. At 24, she moved to Los
Angeles.
At first, it wasn't exactly easy, as Adams' first few roles were few and far between.
In an interview with Vogue, she said,
"To this day, [it] gives me perspective. But going through it was painful, to say the least."
Adams added that she panicked in auditions and meetings and lost the confidence of producers.
She continued saying,
"I actually almost quit because I was starting not to like who I was."
In fact, she was even fired from two different shows.
And as Adams told The Times, one particularly traumatizing audition was for the musical
Rent. She confessed,
"I was off pitch, didn't remember the song and pretty sure that I did the 'Dirty Dancing'
[dance]."
Although Adams struggled with self-esteem in her early career, she did have some notable
successes. She starred in Drop Dead Gorgeous in 1999 alongside Kirsten Dunst and Denise
Richards, and she subsequently appeared on That '70s Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Smallville, and The West Wing. She even starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If
You Can.
As Adams told the Independent, she now thinks of this period as her, quote, "naughty girl"
phase. Of course, these roles weren't exactly right for Adams. It wasn't until 2004 that
she started getting viewed as a more serious actor — and that change only came when she
happened to dye her hair for the show Dr. Vegas. As she said at the TimesTalk in 2016,
"Based on roles that I was getting called in for, people were responding to certain
types of characters with me as a blonde and the minute I went red, it was quirky and fun
instead of flirtatious and dumb."
After her hair color change, Adams landed the role that would transform her career:
In 2005, she played the expectant mother Ashley in Junebug. At the time, Adams thought this
may be her final role. As Little White Lies noted, the part showed Adams with an aura
of otherworldly innocence.
Fortunately for Adams, the movie finally brought her into the limelight. She received an Oscar
nomination for her work in Junebug, and she was suddenly one of the most sought after
actresses in Hollywood. It was a dream come true for Adams who said,
"Going to the Oscars was definitely [a fairytale moment], walking down that red carpet and
realizing that the moment was actually happening and I did not lose my shoe."
After Junebug, the offers started rolling in. In the next five years, she played a lost
Disney Princess in Enchanted, the sweet, ditzy nightclub singer Delysia in Miss Pettigrew
Lives For a Day, and the naïve Sister James in Doubt — a film that earned her another
Oscar nomination. This phase of Adams' career saw her playing more roles like Ashley in
Junebug — young, wide-eyed ingenues. As Adams told the Independent, this is what she
calls her "innocents" phase.
Eventually, playing the ingenue got a little boring for Adams. As she told The Sydney Morning
Herald,
"As I was getting deeper into my 30s, I really wanted to play people who were more confident
and who have experienced more and I've been able to — it's kind of grown as I've grown."
Luckily, Adams got the chance to try some darker roles with The Fighter in 2010, American
Hustle in 2013, and Nocturnal Animals in 2016.
As Adams appeared in more and more big-budget films, she found that she had evolved as an
actor and that she had managed to let go of some of her anxieties. In an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter, she said,
"I realized you can still be a human being and have flaws and still be in movies, and
that your flaws are what make you beautiful. I just wanted to do a good job."
When Adams had first moved to L.A., she had been afraid and self-conscious, bombing multiple
auditions. But by 2013, she was far more self-assured. She shared,
"I look back sometimes, and I've missed her from time to time. There's something to the
hunger that informs you and drives you."
As Adams explained to the Los Angeles Times, this transformation happened during the filming
of Her in 2013.
"I'm a harsh critic of myself. I see when I stopped needing to be perfect. I stopped
carrying the weight of criticism. I really was so tired of giving a f--- cause I just
gave so many all the time."
Amy Adams first met Darren Le Gallo at an acting class in 2001. While Adams eventually
became a star, Le Gallo was once a little-known actor with a few bit parts to his name. He
later became an artist.
In 2010, Adams gave birth to their daughter, Aviana. Five years later, Adams and Le Gallo
married.
Unsurprisingly, Aviana's birth changed a lot about Adams' life, both personally and professionally.
The actor told The Guardian,
"I definitely feel more raw and more open to empathy, and that helps."
She went on to explain that Aviana also forced her to learn to separate work life from home
life. And, as Adams explained to Little London,
her daughter made her re-evaluate her approach to work.
"It's made an impact in the kind of projects I choose and wanting to play characters that
make me happy."
A few years after the birth of her daughter, Adams was offered the lead role in the 2016
Denis Villeneuve film Arrival. As she explained to Female.com.au, she was initially hesitant
to accept the part. She recalled,
"I didn't know what I was going to be doing next and it was at a time where I really wanted
to take a break and just be a mom for a while."
However, once she read the script, she was hooked.
"It spoke to me really deeply in the core of who I am and I felt that I really had to
do it. I was really drawn to it."
Arrival ended up being one of Adams' biggest successes to date. As Anthony Lane wrote for
The New Yorker,
"Her gift for sorrow, her strength, and her instinctive sweetness of temper are rolled
into one."
Aside from a few TV roles in her early career, Adams is best-known for her work in films.
However, this changed in 2018 when she starred in Sharp Objects, an HBO mini series about
a troubled crime reporter. As the Independent noted, the role marked yet another transition
for the actress: With Sharp Objects, she was firmly positioning herself as someone who
could tackle truly dark and twisted roles. For Adams, this role was the peak of her,
quote, "moody and introspective" phase. As she told the publication, there is a part
of her that connects to these roles.
"I don't have the same darkness and depth of internal anger, but that sort of sadness
that drives you to be unkind to yourself? I think I have that."
Playing such a part certainly wasn't easy, either. As Adams told Backstage, her character
was covered in self-harm scars. This meant standing in her underwear for up to three
hours a day while the scars were applied to her body by the makeup team. She shared,
"It really fed the character.”
One thing that Adams is well-known for is her specific approach to each role she plays.
As she explained to So It Goes, she really began to learn about acting while on the set
of her first film, Drop Dead Gorgeous.
"I would sit behind the sound cart and they were very generous, they gave me some headphones
so I could hear how the director was. I learned all the terminology by hanging out on set,
out of the way."
Since then, Adams has developed her own unique approach to acting. As author Gillian Flynn
told the Independent, Adams, quote, "completely immersed herself physically, bodily, mentally
into Camille" during the filming for Sharp Objects.
Adams said her process was like, quote, "catching a virus." In other words, she completely transforms
and is even a little unrecognizable in between takes. It sounds like this actress likes to
dive in headfirst into her roles.
After exploring her sad, dark side with Sharp Objects, it seems that Amy Adams is ready
to keep experimenting with darkness in her work. As she told the Independent, her days
of being an ingénue are long behind her.
"Oh do it again! Show me!”
"I don't feel any sense of pride of accomplishment if I'm not being pushed, so I'm interested
in anything that will push me. I may succeed, I may fail, but I'll try anything."
Adams has even set up her own production company called Bond Group Entertainment, which, as
she told The Sydney Morning Herald, will prioritize female stories. She revealed,
“It matters to me because I have a daughter, and to see how strong she is in the moment
and how outspoken, I would hate to see that voice get quieter. It's the female experience
and that point of view that I was to present."
It seems like Adams isn't anywhere near slowing down — in fact, in many ways, she's just
getting started.
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