Amy Adams joins Forbes' Hollywood Top Ten earners

Amy Adams has joined the highest-paid Hollywood actors this year, 14.5 million dollars (£7.25 million). Here is a list of the top 10 best-paid actors, actresses and youngsters, so-called "tweens", compiled by US business magazine Forbes.

Top 10 actresses
1. Cameron Diaz - 50 million dollars (£25 million)
2. Keira Knightley - 32 million dollars (£16 million)
3. Jennifer Aniston - 27 million dollars (£13.5 million)
4= Reese Witherspoon - 25 million dollars (£12.5 million)
4= Gwyneth Paltrow - 25 million dollars (£12.5 million)
6. Jodie Foster - 23 million dollars (£11.5million)
7. Sarah Jessica Parker - 18 million dollars (£9 million)
8. Meryl Streep - 16 million dollars (£8 million)
9. Amy Adams - 14.5 million dollars (£7.25 million)
10. Angelina Jolie - 14 million dollars (£7 million)

Top 10 actors
1. Will Smith - 80 million dollars (£40 million)
2. Johnny Depp - 72 million dollars (£36 million)
3= Eddie Murphy - 55 million dollars (£27.5 million)
3= Mike Myers - 55 million dollars (£27.5 million)
5. Leonardo DiCaprio - 45 million dollars (£22.5 million)
6. Bruce Willis - 41 million dollars (£20.5 million)
7. Ben Stiller - 40 million dollars (£20 million)
8. Nicolas Cage - 38 million dollars (£19 million)
9. Will Ferrell - 31 million dollars (£15.5 million)
10. Adam Sandler - 30 million dollars (£15 million)

Top 10 "tweens"
1= Daniel Radcliffe, 19 - 25 million dollars (£12.5 million)
1= Miley Cyrus, 15 - 25 million dollars (£12.5 million)
3. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, 22 - 15 million dollars (£7.5 million)
4. Jonas Brothers, aged 15 to 20 - 12 million dollars (£6 million)
5. Zac Efron, 20 - 5.8 million dollars (£2.9 million)
6= Ashley Tisdale, 23 - 5.5 million dollars (£2.75 million)
6= Emma Watson, 18 - 5.5 million dollars (£2.75 million)
8= Hilary Duff, 20 - 5 million dollars (£2.5 million)
8= Rupert Grint, 19 - 5 million dollars (£2.5 million)
10. Vanessa Anne Hudgens - 3.2 million dollars (£1.6 million)

Amy Adams dines out with Ben Stiller in Vancouver

A big thank you goes to Jeff for informing us that Amy Adams and Ben Stiller were spotted dining out together at trendy Cioppino's restaurant in Yaletown recently.

Patrons inside recognized the stars, and ended up following them outside after dinner, where Stiller posed for pictures and signed autographs. The pair are in town working on the mega budget sequel "Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian".

Source: Darren Parkman for 'Vancouver 24 hours'

Amy Adams joins Entertainment Weekly's next A-list

Hollywood is full of celebrities, but few stars. True film stardom--the power to draw huge crowds on opening weekend--has belonged to an elite few for decades. EW interviewed studio execs, producers, and agents to find out who is most likely to become the next Will Smith or Julia Roberts. It turns out Amy Adams and a new generation of actors (James McAvoy, Shia LeBeouf, Katherine Heigl, Anne Hathaway...) are jostling to join the A-list ranks!

Amy Adams

AGE
33

LAST SEEN IN
'Charlie Wilson's War' and 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day'

CAREER BOX OFFICE
$1.1 billion

ASKING PRICE
Over $4 million

There are few actresses that everyone in Hollywood seems to love, but right now Adams is everybody's sweetheart. "She's a total star," says one top talent agent. "She's really versatile. She can do comedy or drama, studio movie or weird indie. She's got it all."

After scoring an Oscar nom two years ago for her charmingly offbeat supporting role in the indie Junebug, Adams has proved the range and depth of her talent, tackling broad comedy (Talladega Nights), upscale drama (Charlie Wilson's War), and a mainstream family musical (Enchanted). That fairy-tale film, which earned $340 million worldwide, endeared her not just to girls, but to the industry.

"She has the most appealing nature," says one producer. "If Walt Disney had not created Snow White, Amy Adams would have been that person." Now she needs to stop sharing the screen with high-wattage stars and focus on becoming one herself.

NEXT
Back-to-back features with Meryl Streep: 'Doubt,' based on the Broadway play, and 'Julie & Julia,' an adaptation of the best-selling memoir.

Amy Adams and Leelee Sobieski are fearless

There's an article about Amy Adams entitled "Lap Dance Duo" in a recent issue of Star Magazine. Thank you very much to the wonderful Tiffany for this!!

"Here's a double shocker. Not only are Amy Adams and Leelee Sobieski BFFs, but they also like to dance for their lovers! Amy and Leelee "downed shot after shot then got raunchy with their dates" at L.A.'s Green Door on May 8.

"They were fearless!" a source tells Star. Leelee did a lap dance for her boyfriend, Matt Davis, while Amy put on a show for her man, Darren Le Gallo.

"It's funny because Amy has this innocent image," says the source. "But they were, bumping and grinding like professionals!" Their guys were "thrilled and totally impressed," and the group didn't leave until 2 a.m".

Source: Star Magazine

"Dakota Fanning would play a good young me" says Amy

Ever wondered who would play Amy Adams in a movie of her life?

"I'm still young enough to play myself, but if I could cast me?" giggles Amy. "Oh, wow--I think Dakota Fanning would make a good young me. She just has to get a little more sarcastic."

Actress Amy Adams got her professional start as a dancer at Country Dinner Playhouse and Boulder's Dinner Theatre.

"She was this fantastic young talent," said Paul Dwyer, who performed with her at Country Dinner and is now its artistic director. "She was just like a ball of fire."

Adams did three shows at Country Dinner in the mid-'90s and waited tables as a Barnstormer. At Boulder's Dinner Theatre, Adams played Christine to Brian Norber's Al in "A Chorus Line". In the play, after Christine makes the first cut in auditions, she hugs her husband. One night, her fingernail plunged into Norber's cheek. He bled onstage.

"Don't think, at every party I'm at, I won't say (what happened) when someone brings up Amy Adams," Norber said.

Adams left Colorado in her early 20s. When she was a student at Douglas County High School, she didn't participate in drama.

"I was a dancer," she said. "I've definitely let it slip. My focus has been elsewhere of late."

Source: Rocky Mountain News, InStyle

Amy Adams remembers her first kiss

There's a short bit about Amy Adams in the latest issue of People Magazine. She talks about her first kiss: ""I was in fourth grade, and a group of us decided we were going to get together after school and kiss. We were squirting lemon juice in our mouths to prepare. It was very weird.", she says.

Today, "Julie and Julia" is filming near E 96th St (between Park and Lexington) in NYC.

Amy Adams feels like a true redhead

AMY ADAMS (Age: 33)
Actress and enhanced strawberry blonde

"I am completely open to dying my hair for a role. Giselle, from Enchanted, had blonde hair for a second. I am happy that Disney agreed with me that I looked much better as a redhead.

I do, however, love wigs. There is so much freedom in wigs.

When I dyed my hair true red for the first time, I felt as if it was what nature intended. I have been accused of being a bit of a spitfire, so in that way I absolutely live up to the stereotype. The red hair suited my personality. I was a terrible blonde."

Source: People

Kathryn Adams is sure daughter Amy will win an Oscar

Kathryn Adams didn't seem to mind that her daughter didn't win an Oscar in 2006.

Adams' daughter and former Colorado resident, Amy (pictured on the left with her sister), was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Junebug.

While Kathryn, dressed in a black dress and wearing a Marilyn Monroe-inspired wig, attended the Denver Film Society's Oscar party at the University of Denver, her daughter sat anxiously in Los Angeles at the Kodak Theatre.

When the award was announced, both Adams women clapped excitedly for winner Rachel Weisz, nominated for her role in The Constant Gardener.

"I'm absolutely so proud," Adams, who lives in Denver, said of her daughter's nomination. "It fills my whole soul with pride."

This was the first nomination for the actress who got her start at Boulder's Dinner Theatre and the Country Dinner Playhouse in the 1990s.

The former Coloradan now lives in West Hollywood, her mother said.

"I believe that her time will come," Adams said. "I believe with all my heart that she will win an Oscar."

- Bianca Prieto for the Rocky Mountain News

Keri Russell was an inspiration to Amy Adams

Amy Adams was waiting tables at Boulder's Dinner Theatre in 1994 when a nasty patron carped, 'Well, I certainly hope you're a better actress than you are a waitress.'

'Oh, believe me,' she responded guilelessly, 'me too.'

Amy is the middle of seven children by Kathryn and Rich Adams. In high school, she was an apprentice ballerina for the David Taylor Dance Company and focused on art and sculpture. Art teacher Larry Alexander said Amy 'had the quiet intensity of a perfectionist,' but she never considered acting, in part because, she said, 'I was led to believe that I can't sing.'

Her mother knew Amy was going to be a star when she was rushed into service by Boulder's Dinner Theatre for 'A Chorus Line' after another actor was injured. 'She learned all the songs and dances by video,' Kathryn Adams said. 'When she went on stage, she hadn't had any time with the rest of the cast, and she was phenomenal.'

She worked for Heritage Square Music Hall and the Country Dinner Playhouse, where producer Bill McHale said, 'I felt she was something special from the very first audition.' Adams calls those 'the learning years' - and the poor years. She drove a rusty car the family called the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because you could see straight through to the street from inside the car.

A producer from a Minneapolis dinner theater saw Adams in the chorus of CDP's 'Anything Goes' and 'stole her away,' McHale said. It was there she landed the Minnesota-based 'Drop Dead Gorgeous.'

Even today, she still can't believe her luck.

'When I was starting out, Keri Russell had just gotten on 'Felicity,' and even though she was far more beautiful and talented, she was an inspiration to me,' Adams said. 'She was from Colorado, and that made me think, 'Hey, it can happen.'

'So my advice to anyone now would just be to work hard, stay focused and remember that it is just a career. But yeah, it can happen. It definitely can happen.'

- John Moore for The Denver Post

Amy Adams talks about her struggling beginnings

Amy Adams doesn't believe in the "big break," but that's what others are saying when she earned the audience's respect, admiration, and sympathy for "Junebug". Adams was awarded a Sundance Film Festival prize for her acting—a trophy she felt strange winning, partly because she had never won anything before, and partly because she feels her work in the film is based on the strength of its ensemble cast, which included Celia Weston, Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz, and Scott Wilson.

"It was surreal," she recalls of learning she'd won the Sundance honor. "I've never won anything performance-based. For me, winning is getting a job."

The role of Ashley was an opportunity for Adams to show a side of herself she hadn't revealed in her previous work, which most notably includes "Catch Me If You Can", in which she plays Leonardo DiCaprio's adoring fiancée, Brenda. "Here it was supposed to be my big break," she says of Catch Me. "And I was unemployed for a year after that. So it's not always what it appears. Looking in, you're, like, 'She's worked with Spielberg,' but I'm, like, 'Um, guys, I need to pay my rent. I need to figure something out.' So there are a lot of little breaks, but I think it's having the perseverance to understand that it's about a body of work and not one particular project."

Adams acknowledges she's had genuine strokes of luck along the way, but her success as an actor has been anything but overnight. For the past ten years, she's been pursuing acting in Los Angeles, where she continues to work with acting teacher Warner Laughlin. Adams has appeared in numerous guest-starring roles on television and in the films "Serving Sara", "Pumpkin", "The Slaughter Rule", "Cruel Intentions 2", and "Psycho Beach Party".

Before arriving in L.A., she spent six years in dinner theatre, first in her native Colorado, then in Minnesota—time Adams remembers fondly. "They were great years. I loved it," she says. "There's such a work ethic involved in theatre that you can't learn in L.A…. Working eight shows a week in the round—there is nothing like it in L.A., that's for sure."

Adams' first break was landing a part in the comedy "Drop Dead Gorgeous", filmed in Minnesota, where she was cast. After she had a good experience on that film and met people in the industry, Adams decided to move to L.A., where she was quickly introduced to manager Stacy Boniello of "The Firm". "I had a cousin who lived out here [whose] friend was represented by her, and, basically, [Boniello] took a meeting with me to sort of be nice to the friend. I think she called New Line, which I had worked with on "Drop Dead Gorgeous", and I guess they said some positive things, and so she decided to work with me during pilot season."

The next stroke of fortune was when Boniello recommended Adams to her first agent, Leanne Coronel at Endeavor. "[Boniello] said, 'I've got this girl I think we should send out and see what happens.' Leanne hadn't even met me because she was on bed rest or something, but she was, like, 'Okay. Let's do it.' So they sent me out, and I got a pilot that year." Adams continues to work with both reps and says Boniello's support has been critical. "I couldn't have stayed as long as I've stayed—with the ups and downs—without her."

While a lot of things came easily to Adams, she recalls having difficulty adapting to the cutthroat nature of Hollywood. "In the theatre environment, it's so familial," says Adams. "I thought that's just how everybody was: Everybody's supportive, and we all rise together. I really thought that, and it took a long time for me to realize that's not necessarily the case. It took me a long time to wrap my head around [the idea] that actors are commodities, it's not always performance-based, and there's so much business involved in it."

Most actors in Adams' current position would be looking to lobby for a choice part in a bigger film with a bigger paycheck. While having financial security sounds nice, Adams is pursuing a different route: at the time of our first interview (July 2005), she was set to fly to New York for a callback in a Broadway musical.

"My dancing needs a little work," she admits, adding that she's honored just to be invited to audition. As for her long-term goals as an actor, she says, "I want to work. I want to do good work in films that I care about…. I just want to always be able to represent myself honestly and to be proud of the work that I'm doing."

Clearly, her attitude needs no work.

Source: Back Stage West

Entertainment Weekly pays tribute to Amy Adams

Birds sing when Adams shows up on screen. In the Disney hit Enchanted, she invigorates what could easily have been just another tired tale of a fairy princess falling into the arms of her prince.

Charming without ever being cloying, the actress — Oscar-nominated for playing a similarly uncynical young woman in 2005's Junebug — manages to play a naive, love-struck maiden without once seeming like a dumb sap (you'd be forgiven if by the movie's end you thought she should ditch the dreamboat and strike out on her own).

With her timeless looks and impressive singing chops, Adams earned comparisons to the ultimate Queen of Twirl, Julie Andrews.

Hers is a performance that grandmas, mothers, and daughters can equally get behind. It seems curmudgeonly to suggest Adams should ever dim the twinkle in her eye, but after playing some form of apple-cheeked innocent in Catch Me if You Can, Junebug, and Enchanted, she's already proved that she can outsparkle just about anyone in Hollywood these days.

Now, what we wouldn't do to see her get the chance to play the wicked witch.

How was it shooting in the streets of New York City dressed in a princess costume?
I definitely stood out; there was no way to miss me. The dress is enormous! It was really heavy — the base of it was made out of steel hoops. It took about 15 minutes to put the dress on. I had a whole new appreciation for what Vivien Leigh must've gone through as Scarlett O'Hara [in Gone With the Wind].

Were little girls freaking out when they saw you?
There was a lot of curiosity. The great thing about New York City is that if there hadn't been a film crew around me, people probably would've thought I was someone handing out flyers.

What made you want to get involved in Enchanted?
I loved the story that they were telling. Just how good [Gisele] was. I love playing characters who have big hearts and really believe in something. I've been in a lot of smaller films that weren't appropriate to take my niece and nephew to, so I needed a movie to get to bring them to. I come from a musical theater background, and it was so much fun to get to do that.

There's an entire song and dance number in the movie that takes place in the middle of Central Park. Were you okay performing in front of such an atypical audience? Or are you used to singing in front of a lot of people?
No, no, it was completely different. In musical theater you're on the stage; people come to watch you sing. In the middle of Central Park, it's a bit nerve-racking. It was really fun to get to do it on location, but I definitely had to pretend that there wasn't an audience of Patrick Dempsey admirers staring on. And there were — everywhere we went! Who can blame 'em, really?

You must've watched a ton of Disney movies to prepare....
I didn't even have to because I used to watch the movies growing up. I was the dork in high school who was singing The Little Mermaid down the hallways. So I'm well-studied.

Are you worried at all that Enchanted is going to be perceived as mostly a chick flick?
Actually, I really believe that it's got something for everybody. It's really funny; it has a lot of comedy in it. There's a great love story. It's got song and dance [numbers that are] a little tongue-in-cheek — so even people who don't appreciate musicals will appreciate it. It's a movie with a lot of heart.

Part of what makes Enchanted so interesting is that it begins as animation. What was your involvement in the animation process?
I did some posing and there were some sketches done. Then they put me on film and we acted out some of the animated scenes so they could see how I moved. They did such a brilliant job of capturing some of my characteristics, my quirks, and my smile. It was really impressive...James Baxter, who drew me, has drawn so many of the recent Disney princesses. And I was really excited to see what he would do. But I'm a little bit intimidated by my animated self, I have to say.

Why?
Because she was hot! [Laughs] And of course, that's what you will print.

Amy talks to "Interview" about freedom

Interview magazine loves Amy Adams. She's now practically in every issue and the April 2008 number is no exception to the rule!

Actresses Salma Hayek, Selma Blair, Evan Rachel Wood, Jennifer Connolly, Naomi Watts, Amber Tamblyn and Amy Adams explained their views on freedom in the magazine's opinion page.

Here's what Amy has to say about it:

"I grew up in a small town and you could run around and get lost all day long. When I was a kid, I would always climb to the top of the trees; I'd be up there by myself. I was one of seven kids, so it was always pretty chaotic and that was a place where I could be alone and nobody could find me. I think as I've gotten older, I've learned to embrace finding freedom with others as well. When I was younger my freedom was when I was alone."

"Getting caught up in someone else's identity provides a lot of freedom but I know that when I was onstage, I felt a bigger sense of freedom than in film."

"It sounds so Miss America but I think that if we had compassion for one another, it would create more freedom because everybody would just feel a little more secure. Security creates freedom."

Presumed Innocent: why Amy Adams was fired of TV show

She is being lauded for her pure-hearted performance in "Junebug", but Amy Adams is no pushover, says Wendy Ide from The Times.

In the world of American independent cinema, it is unusual to find a character that is entirely good, a genuinely pure-hearted individual with no unsavoury characteristics waiting to emerge as a plot-point in the third act. In the eloquently restrained comedy drama Junebug, Ashley is one such character, a wide-eyed innocent full of goodwill for a world that has not always treated her well.

Amy Adams is the actress who brings Ashley to life — the remarkable achievement of her performance as this effervescent, heavily pregnant bundle of chirpy positivity is that not only do we not hate her on sight, but she quickly becomes the heart and soul of the movie.

Adams, a bright and perceptive redhead (she is naturally blonde but kept Ashley’s hair colour after the film), was deservedly rewarded with an Oscar nomination for her part in Junebug. She argues that Ashley is not such an anomaly for American indie movies — after all, just because she’s nice, it doesn’t mean that she’s not deeply messed up on another level. “Being that joyful and that good is its own type of dysfunction. It’s just not usually illustrated in film, which is generally more concerned with people’s ulterior motives.”

Adams is coming to the end of a long journey with a character she originally feared would “drive people crazy”. And the story of the film itself, the pet project of the director Phil Morrison and the writer Angus MacLachlan, is longer still. “They have been working on it since 1992,” says Adams. “I think that there were a lot of actresses who were going to be Ashley before me. But for whatever reason it didn’t happen — thankfully for me.”

When the script for Junebug arrived, Adams was in the process of parting company with a TV series. “I was essentially fired. They were trying to change my contract and I said no to the compromise, so I was let go.” What was the TV show? “It was called Dr Vegas.” She laughs at my blank expression. “Exactly. Junebug was an important film.

“I think for women, it takes a while to take control of decisions. You think that everything is fate or destiny, you don’t really make your choices. I think that summer was the first time I was able to say that I didn’t want to follow through with it and deal with the consequences. It was really empowering. At the end of the summer I was unemployed but I was happy and I was proud. I was like, you know what, I’m done with being pushed around.”

Adams says she had no idea how significant this supporting role in a domestic drama set in North Carolina would be to her career. “I knew that it was important that I did it. I try to look at my projects as more than just what they’re going to do for my career because ultimately you never know whether it’s going to be successful or whether it’s going to be the last thing you ever work on.”

The first hint of the acclaim to follow came at the Sundance Film Festival, where Adams was presented with a Special Jury Award. She has since won eight more prizes and notched up a further four nominations, including the all-important Oscar nomination (she lost out to Rachel Weisz, but says that she is still coming to terms with being nominated at all).

Despite all the praise, Adams is completely unstarry and unaffected. She mocks herself for forgetting how to order coffee in London (“I’m so used to Starbucks where you add everything yourself”), and over lunch she is charm itself, involving everyone at the extended table in conversation, determined that nobody should feel left out. She bristles with indignation at the memory of people slighting her boyfriend, Darren Le Gallo, also an actor (“He’s the one who deserves an award”). While a touchier actress might get huffy that so many interviewers haven’t noticed the seven years of smaller roles that led to this point in her career, and that they persist in calling her a “newcomer”, Adams thinks it’s funny. “I love it when somebody says: ‘You basically came out of nowhere!’ And I’m like: ‘Actually, not really.’”

Adams was raised in Colorado as the middle child of seven. For the first 12 years of her life, she had a strict Mormon upbringing (the family left the church when her parents’ marriage broke down). “They got us all into sports really early, and tried to make us competitive. But it never worked for me. I never cared about winning. It used to really frustrate them because I’d say, it’s all about the doing,” says Adams, who is not unaware of the irony that her chosen career is one of the most competitive.

Instead of sport, Adams got into dancing, “not against my parents’ wishes exactly, but they didn’t think it was practical — they thought I should focus on something that would get me a scholarship to go to university. But I had no desire to go to college, I just wasn’t interested.”

The American press seem to delight in mentioning Adams’s stint working in a tacky restaurant chain called Hooters, but the next significant career move was to Minnesota to work in dinner theatre in light musicals such as Brigadoon. There she sustained a dancing injury just as casting scouts arrived in town for a pitch-black satire of the beauty pageant business. It was called Drop Dead Gorgeous and it was the beginning of Adams’s acting career. “

Hollywood seemed so far away and impossible, I wasn’t a movie star. I thought, maybe I’ll go out there and try to get work. And seven years later . . .”

Before Junebug, the most important job for Adams was as Leonardo DiCaprio’s naive girlfriend in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, another unusually sweet and innocent character. “I don’t know if that’s how people see me, but I know that I approach characters, even those who are deviant, from a place of innocence. Then I find the event that happened to them that shaped them into what they are.”

But doesn’t she long to play somebody evil, just once? “I would love to. But at the same time I don’t like evil for evil’s sake. I had an opportunity to play a woman who had killed these two men. But I couldn’t find anything redeeming about her. I didn’t like her. I kind of didn’t want to be her.”

Adams’s evil incarnation will not be revealed for a while — her two last projects are Will Ferrell’s Nascar comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; and then as a “sort-of princess” in a partially animated Disney film called Enchanted.

She is hesitant to rush into anything else. Ashley, after all, is a tough act to follow. “It’s a lot of pressure. I’m never going to play Ashley again. I think, ultimately, people loved Ashley. Whether they love me as an actress remains to be seen. So it is a lot of pressure, but not something I can’t handle. It’s a good challenge.”

Amy Adams: an overnight sensation?

IMDB also indicates that "Sunshine Cleaning" will be released on 25 July 2008 in the US. That's sooner than expected but if it turns out to be true, I'm sure no one will be complaining! Thanks Mac for the alert :-)

I'm still digging through the archives of Interview magazine so I apologize if you've already read the article that follows. Selma Blair interviewed Amy for the April 2005 issue. I kinda like to update this blog at least daily so when things are getting quieter for Amy, I tend to post old interviews and videos. Please let me know if you're interested by video clips from "Standing Still", "Psycho Beach Party", "The Last Run" or any other Amy movies that I might have. Don't hesitate to send requests to stephany.kong[at]hotmail.fr or post a comment, and I'll see what I can do. Anyway, here's the interview:

AMY ADAMS: AN OVERNIGHT SENSATION?

Until now, actress Amy Adams has been most recognizable as the naive, brace-faced fiancee of Leonardo DiCaprio's seductive con man in "Catch Me If You Can" (2002) as well as for various supporting roles in teen and romantic comedies. But this year it was she and a mere handful of others who made the Sundance Film Festival seem as though it hadn't lost its way. With her turn as a young pregnant wife in a small Southern town in the well-received "Junebug"--a performance that earned her a Special Jury Prize at the festival--the actress proved she's all grown-up and ready to break out once and for all.

Dear Amy. Let me just start--I'm gonna talk for a minute because I want to tell you I feel like you're a girl who has not gotten her due. I know you have no bitterness about it, but I'm bitter for you. I think you are the greatest undiscovered discovery.
You are so nice.

And you are so incredibly talented. You blew me away, blew me, blew me, blew me--God, that sounds good, let's repeat that a few times! [both laugh] Anyway, you blew me away in Catch Me If You Can, so I cannot wait to see Junebug. When does it come out?
I have no idea. I think it got picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, so they're going to be dealing with it. I'm just happy for everybody.

It's amazing when a good story gets to be told with the right people involved. And congratulations on your award at Sundance. I looked online. You looked supercute at the awards ceremony. You're like a dark, complicated girl trapped in the physicality of a Breck girl. [Adams laughs]
You know, I've dyed my hair red.

That's going to change everything, Amy!
I know. Cutting bangs is going to change my whole personality, I've decided. People will finally see the darker girl inside.

So, what was your first project?
Drop Dead Gorgeous [1999].

And you've been blonde in every film except for maybe some recent projects. Are you blonde in Junebug?
No, I have red hair. I mean, really it's orange. We went for a very specific orange shade. I'm kidding, actually--it just turned out orange, and I was like, "Oh, let's leave it."

Tell me about the character you play.
She's really innocent, the sweetest girl you'd ever meet. Like, you feel sorry for her because she's so nice.

Is there a touch of your Catch Me If You Can character in Junebug?
I guess there are similarities. She's got the young Southern innocence about her, but the girl in Junebug has been through a lot more. But, to me, they're both so different.

How did Phil Morrison, the film's director, find you for this movie?
He'd seen me in Catch Me, but my being around for the casting was basically a fluke. I was in the midst of shooting what I will now refer to as "That Television Show," [both laugh] and I was supposed to be in Las Vegas; but the studio sent me home because they weren't going to use me for a few days. I was angry about that, but as it turned out, I had the audition for Junebug that weekend.

Your angels are watching over you. I do think it's kind of like "Slow and steady wins the race," and everything is lining up for you now. You're too good to become an overnight sensation, even though you've been called one.
Well, it's funny because even now I'll read stuff about me, and it'll say "newcomer" or "relative newcomer," and I'm like, "Six years later!" [laughs] I don't think people understand how much work goes into being a newcomer.

I'm still a newcomer starlet, and I'm 50! So, how long have you been in L.A.?
Six years.

And is it true that you were performing in dinner theater?
Yeah. I was working on Brigadoon at this dinner theater in Minnesota when I got the part in Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Do you love Brigadoon? [There's a knock at the door, and an Interview editor enters carrying a coffee for Blair]. Oh, no, you're bringing me coffee! I feel like such a big deal. Thank you! [Adams laughs] Amy, someone just brought me coffee.
They brought you coffee?

[Laughs] I quit coffee for a while, but apparently I'm back on it.
You fool!

I know. Anyway, what's something about you that someone who doesn't know you would be really surprised by?
Where do I start?

I know--it's all a facade, right?
It's weird. Even in high school I was so frustrated because I felt like people expected me to be one way based on looking a certain way. Like, looking wholesome.

Were people afraid to swear or to light a cigarette in front of you because they thought you'd judge them or something?
No, it wasn't that. I was just not fitting in with the cheerleaders. And I was doing ballet, so I was always gone from school. But I didn't fit in with the theater people either because I was in the real theater. I think people thought I was a snob. But I'd say people would think my personality is exactly the opposite of my face, if that makes any sense--even though at the same time I'm a really optimistic, upbeat person, and I'm for the most part happy. There's just a lot of yin and yang.

Your idealism was one of the things I understand Steven Spielberg [Catch Me If You Can's director] was so attracted to in you. And that's been my small experience of you too. I'll see you in an audition, and you're so happy and professional. And if you're not rooting for yourself, you're rooting for me. But at the same time, you're really there, you do your hair right--
And I show up in costume.

I remember we were at some audition where we were supposed to be like stewardesses or anchorwomen or something. You showed up with a scarf, and I swear your hair looked like a wig. You were perfect. I'm like, "I could never get in my car dressed that way." You're completely fearless.
There's no halfway with me. I ain't got time to pretend I don't want a job.

Yeah, I agree. It's like, "If you don't want this job, then please leave because I really do. And the girl over there, Amy, with the parasol--she really wants it too." [Adams laughs]
Exactly. But I don't see anything wrong with playing your cards. I mean, is there something wrong with wanting to do your best?

I've heard that a couple of times, like, "Oh, Selma, you just want it too bad."
I hate it when people put that on you, that whole you're-giving-away-your-power thing. And I'm like, "Why? By wanting to do a good job?" How being honest has now become the new weakness I'll never understand. But I guess I'll be weak then because I cannot lie--I'm the worst liar.

What's the last lie you told?
I think I have a tendency to exaggerate, but harmless exaggerations like "Oh my God, there was so much traffic," when really I just didn't leave my house on time.

I'm pretty sure your judgment day will be a kind one. [laughs] What else have you got going on?
Well, I shot The Wedding Date recently with Debra Messing.

Oh, yeah! And that's out right now. Tell me about it.
I play Debra's younger half sister. And honestly, they told me that I was too mean. We had to go back in looping and make her nicer.

[Laughs] Okay, so is there anything you want to say in an interview that you've never had the opportunity to say--something that you just wanted to blurt out or wanted people to learn about you?
Um, I'm one of seven kids. I grew up in Colorado.

What order in the children are you?
I'm the middle child.

Okay, favorite record from childhood.
Uh, Strawberry Shortcake Loses Her Basket, but that's from, like, early childhood.

Okay, I was thinking more like Corey Hart or something [Adams laughs], but that was so honest. And your favorite record when you were 15?
I was really into this REO Speedwagon single, and I liked the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Now that was hot.

Okay, more random questions. What color of shoes would you never wear?
[Pause] Is there a shoe that I wouldn't wear at all? The answer is: There's no color of shoe that I wouldn't wear.

Okay. Favorite supermodel.
Heidi Klum. She always looks so happy!

I know, she does.
I'd be pleased if I were her. [laughs]

Favorite president of all time.
Oh. Um. Let's see. I'm stumped.

I like how we can immediately say which supermodel we like, and we're like, "Favorite president ... hmm."
[Laughs] Let's say George Washington.

Favorite flavor of tea?
Chamomile.

Really? It tastes like toilet paper to me.
I put soy milk and honey in it. Maybe that's the trick.

Okay, I have a couple more stupid questions. Pencils or felt-tipped pens?
Pencils. I like ballpoint, if you had said that.

No, I hate ballpoint, so that wasn't even in the running. These are my questions. [laughs] More important question: a director that you really want to work with?
Alexander Payne.

And your dream role?
Wow, that's hard 'cause it changes every week. I'm looking at a script right now that has a dream role in it.

Okay, then we'll just send light that way. And don't jinx it, don't talk about it. I wish you the best on that dream role. [whines] I hope you get it! ... I hope I don't want it! [laughs]
You'd actually be really good in it.

Well, that'll end this friendship. I'll be like, "Oh, by the way, that dream role that you wanted? Mine."
No, I'm not like that, because my thing is, if another actress gets it--

She was meant to have it. I'm the same way.
And also, I love it when people I respect get a role I was up for. Like, my goal in acting is to lose a part to Samantha Morton.

Just to be in that company. I agree. Well, I will always be thrilled to lose a part to you.
And vice versa.

And I can't wait to see Junebug, and I'm going to go see The Wedding Date.
Yeah, go see it. Dermot Mulroney's behind is very cute in it.

Amy Adams worries about patterned sheets

Amy Adams recently spoke to Aroundphilly.com about her first job, Delysia Lafosse and...Bed Bath & Beyond.

Oscar nominee Amy Adams a screwball heroine in "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day", a fun period comedy in which she plays Delysia Lafosse, a woman with three hunky boyfriends: Phil (Tom Payne), Nick (Mark Strong) and Michael (Lee Pace). She unexpectedly gets some assistance from Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) who fakes her way into Delysia’s life and helps her solve her romantic problems.

First Enchanted, now Miss Pettigrew. How did you keep your energy level playing these bubbly characters?
You just do it, you know. I enjoy it. I’ve played depressed characters, and there is a benefit to that. This is much more infectious in your life. You go home with energy, with more spirit. I get something from my characters as well.

Have you always had such energy?
I was a greeter at the Gap. I wanted to work in the stock room, but I was just too peppy. They were like “No, you have to be in the front of the store, you are the only person who will literally talk to every person coming through the door!” It was 1993-1994, right after I graduated high school.

How did you get into acting?
I lived in Colorado and started working in theater, and from there I went to Minnesota and worked in dinner theater, and as a dancer, and I got cast in Drop Dead Gorgeous, and that gave me the chutzpah to move to Los Angeles, and do everything from day player roles to Delysia.

Your comic timing here—the gasps, facial expressions, pratfall slapstick moments—are terrific and really make the film a delight. How did you develop this for this character?
I think that I approach the physicality from being a dancer. I figure out how they feel—it’s all very tactile and kinetic. What does it feel like to be this person? I’m a huge fan of old movies—and older films are more closely related to the stage. It was something I wanted to accomplish, that style of acting. And Frances [McDormand]—once I saw what she was doing with Guinevere [Miss Pettigrew] gave me permission to go there. It’s a physical movie, and you want people to get caught up in Delysia’ world.

Delysia has three men and is different with each. What can you say about this?
What I love about her is that her whole world is a stage, and every day is a performance. With Nick, it’s that he overpowers her—she’s the damsel in distress and can manipulate him with her feminine wiles. As much as it hurts her, there is something about her playing all the roles with all of her men. I think there are deeper reasons, and you get to know her in the film, and what’s really happening and why she is doing what she’s doing. She’s the kind of person who once she decides she’s going to do something, she’s going to do it—full out.

Miss Pettigrew fixes many things in Delysia’s life. What could Miss Pettigrew fix in your life? Three Men? Money trouble?
No, I’m such a practical person! Well, for the most part. Maybe she could clean my closet out, because I’m messy. I nitpick over little things. Like getting a bed set at Bed Bath & Beyond and I wake up in the middle of the night going, “I should have gotten a patterned one. I just know it!” If someone could make me stop doing that, I could accomplish more in my life.

Are you a little OCD there, Amy?
Are you like that? What would my mind be capable of if I wasn’t thinking about throw blankets?

Did you identify with Delysia’s ambitions and drive in show business?
To a certain degree. I can understand her reasons for wanting it. She wants security and stability, and that I definitely can relate to. Wanting some bit of certainty and control over your own destiny.

So how does it feel now, that you kind of made it?
As Delysia would say, there is no such thing as security. Your mind will find something else to worry about.

Like patterned sheets?
Yes, like patterned sheets. Sometimes you realize that when you get what you want, it isn’t what you needed. I always consider “Is this really making me happy?” I don’t think it’s any one thing—career, relationship, etc. I try to achieve balance in my life.

By Gary Kramer for Aroundphilly.com

Interview magazine's 1999 "Hot Pop 30"

Nine years ago, very few people predicted Amy Adams' rise to stardom when "Drop Dead Gorgeous" was released. Even less when "Cruel Intentions 2" crashed and burned so quickly.

Despite it all, Interview magazine has always showed tremendous support for Adams and even listed her among its "Hot Pop 30 list" in 1999. Here's the interview - it's quite a fun read when we know what has happened to Amy's career.

HOT POP 30 - AMY ADAMS
Watch out, they're ready to take on the world! Welcome to Interview's outspoken, out-there portfolio of thirty folks - some big and some about to be - who are brightening, enlightening, and sometimes even frightening, for now and for years to come.

The character: Evil vamp on "Cruel Intentions 2" .
Where everyone's seen her: Lovable bimbo in the movie "Drop Dead Gorgeous." .
In her own words: "I always knew I wanted to perform. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a singing nurse."

For you to play such a good bitch in "Cruel Intentions 2" [airing in December 99 on the Fox Network], deep down you have to be nice and really stretching.
Yeah, I like to consider myself a nice person. I think that everybody actually has that dark side, though - I think that everybody has that "wicked wit."

Yeah, but Katherine's beyond wicked. She really enjoys destroying lives.
We started shooting again on Tuesday, and I was reminded how icky I feel when I play Katherine, because I really let myself feel like that, and it's just the grossest feeling. I mean, it is fun, but when you're in it, you just ache all the time. She's just so angry and bitter.

So when you've been to that bottomless pit of nastiness, do you want to take a shower afterwards?
A long shower. I get the giggles a lot, though.

Are you afraid you might be - or hoping that you might be - the young generation's answer to Joan Collins on Dynasty?
I hope so. Fox needs a new bad girl. So hopefully I can fill that spot.

Is your family aware of exactly what you're doing in this show? Because it is pretty racy, isn't it?
Yeah, and now they're all laughing because I try to please people a lot, and nobody in America is going to like me as a person when they see me playing Katherine.

So you're a giver?
I give and take, but I try. Like I never want to hurt anybody's feelings. But don't get me wrong. I'm a very generous taker, too.

Can you snap into the character just by clicking something Inside of you, or does it take a lot of buildup?
I'll show you how to do it, OK? Just wash everything you know about yourself away. Now think about the time you were jilted, like somebody did something awful to you and you couldn't believe it. You know that gut ache you get? And then you're there.

But I'm always like that!
Perhaps you should be playing Katherine.

. Interview magazine - October 1999

Amy tops Carver County's A-list

It's unknown Amy Adams ever had a mailing address in Carver County. However, she appeared in so many Chanhassen Dinner Theatres performances between 1996 and 1998, that she's been included as an honorary member of the Carver County A-List. She took a short leave from musical theater to appear in the locally filmed "Drop Dead Gorgeous". From there, she went on to star in a number of movies and TV shows.

Any description of Chanhassen Dinner Theater alum Amy Adams as placid would provoke demands for a correction, she says. "If you print in Minnesota that I'm, like, calm, you'll have about 50 people out at Chanhassen coming at you going, `I know this and I know that'.

In 1999, Adams played in "Cruel Intentions 2" a "manipulative . . . bad girl . . . a teenager . . . 16 going on 50 . . . It's fun; it's sooo much fun." Adams said her older sister, Juli, her only immediate family member still in Minnesota, didn't recognize that person her little sister is playing. In reality, Adams said, "I'm mischievous but I'm not evil."

Chanhassen director Michael Brindisi begged to differ. "She's mischievous and evil," laughed Brindisi. "Let's get down to the facts. Amy, Amy. She's a sweetheart. I discovered her, and I want a piece of her {career}." Brindisi first saw her when he was casting for "Crazy for You" in Denver. "She jumped right off the stage; she was just magnetic."

Adams did "Crazy for You," "State Fair" and "Brigadoon" and then told Brindisi she was leaving. He asked her to stick around long enough to open "Good News." One of Adams' finest moments of Chanhassen mischief came during a rehearsal for "State Fair." Amy was the tiny person in the really big pig costume. "When she came to the photo call she wore it backwards, sticking out her tongue at all of us," he said.

In other antics, Brindisi has "heard rumors that she's danced around the women's dressing room in various stages of undress, although I've never personally observed this." From what Brindisi said, there was really no need for Adams to go without clothing. "You know that clothing store Opitz in St. Louis Park?" Brindisi said. "Every time my wife, Michelle, and I would go there, Amy would be there shopping. I think she had a bed there." Brindisi is hoping she makes it big: "She's one of those people you wish good things would come to. Everybody is pulling for her.'`

Many actors decide they want to fudge their age too late in the game. Amy Adams is starting early. "I don't talk about my age," she said very coolly. That enhances an actor's mystique and helps diminish some forms of typecasting. "That's part of it," she said. Told that this was not a new strategy, she was happy to be in good company. "That's fabulous," Adams said.

Amy Adams Chanhassen performances and start dates:
“Crazy for You,” Feb. 2, 1996 (came in as a replacement)
“State Fair” Jan. 31, 1997
“Brigadoon,” Jan. 30: 1998
“Good News,” Nov. 6, 1998 (left midway through show's run to pursue Hollywood career)

Cheryl Johnson for The Star Tribune - 17 June 1999

"I'm too old for High School Musical 3"

The third installment of High School Musical, set for the big screen, is one of 2008's most anticipated movies.

Amy Adams says she's very happy to see the franchise doing so well: "I think we seem to be returning again to a more wholesome presentation to our young girls so we don't have the bare mid drift and the promiscuous behaviour being sold to 10 year olds. So I'm happy that those films are doing well and also I would love to do another musical. I would love to do a stage musical."

Casting for High School Musical 3 is already underway. Given her dancing and musical background, Amy was asked several times by the press if she would like to be part of the project. "I think I'm a little old for High School Musical 3 unless I'm the perky counsellor", she giggles. "But I would love to return to musicals yes".

Source: Femail.com

Amy's big screen smooch

Locking lips on the big screen can be a challenge. In "Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day," Amy Adams gets a smooch with hunky Lee Pace of ABC's "Pushing Daisies." The problem? Amy told Parade, "I'm about five feet four and Lee is six-four. Bending over to reach my lips looked silly. So Lee just grabbed me and hoisted me off the floor."

Amy reveals that her boyfriend has no problem with her getting romantic on the set. "He understands that it's part of the job," she says. "When I was doing 'Enchanted' there was a day that I was lying on a chaise lounge and being kissed by James Marsden and then Patrick Dempsey. We did the scene all day long. At the end, I stood up and was like, 'Girls, you need to stand in line for this ride.'

Then, my boyfriend called me and he was very funny. He was like, 'How did your best day of filming ever go?' We're very secure with each other."

Source: ABC News

Amy Adams isn't afraid anymore

Amy Adams wasn't destined to be an actress. Growing up in the tiny town of Castle Rock, Colo., she spent much of her childhood scared out of her wits.

"I was a very fearful child," recalls the daughter of a U.S. serviceman dad and housewife mom. "When I got a bike for the first time, I remember thinking, "Riding a bike can't be a very good idea. I could fall."

"My sister would go, "Cool, a bike!' She stole my pink Huffy because I didn't learn how to ride it. So she just took it and went off and had a good time."

Performing wound up giving Adams the outlet she needed to shine. A little more than a decade since she first started kicking up her heels in dinner theater chorus lines, the actress is doing all right for herself.

In fact, Adams is one of the few actresses who can brag about finishing up 2007 with a $300 million hit. Her turn as a cartoon princess who springs to live-action life in "Enchanted" left cash registers jingling and critics applauding.

But that doesn't mean Adams is a household name just yet. "Last week, this gentleman came up to me and said, "You look so much like Amy Adams that it's weird,' " recalls the effervescent redhead, who has been compared to actresses from Lucille Ball to Julia Roberts. "I said, "Yes, I've been told that before.'

"It's wonderful to have industry people responding to your work and to be getting really great opportunities. I'm not going to lie about that. But as far as some sort of public shift in perception about me -- that hasn't happened yet. I can still go walking down the street."

By the end of the year, Adams might have a harder time taking an anonymous stroll. The actress will pop up in three 2008 films including the indie "Sunshine Cleaning" and a pair of pics with Meryl Streep: "Doubt," based on the hit play by John Patrick Shanley; and "Julie & Julia," a comedy about a newbie chef who spends a year cooking her way through Julia Childs' recipes.

First up for Adams is "Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day," a comedy based on a 1938 novel by Winifred Watson. Frances McDormand stars as the title character, a dowdy ex-governess who, through a strange twist of fate, winds up in the employ of nightclub singer Delysia Lafosse (Adams).

Over the course of a madcap 24 hours, Miss Pettigrew falls in love while juggling Delysia's very complicated romantic life.

While Adams never had a Miss Pettigrew in her life, she credits her boyfriend, actor Darren Le Gallo, with giving her an added sense of self-worth.

"My boyfriend definitely altered my path," says the actress, 33. "He's the most generous person I know. To me, the movie's about opening yourself up to the fact that someone can love you just the way that you are, that you don't have to change and try to be someone else."

For as long as she can remember, Adams longed to be a ballerina. But after years of dance classes, she eventually hung up her ballet slippers, certain she wasn't good enough to go professional.

Instead, Adams turned her attention to dinner theater. Following high school graduation, she worked at Hooters and the Gap while auditioning for roles at Boulder's Dinner Theatre and Country Dinner Playhouse. Once she relocated with her folks to Minnesota, Adams booked a tiny role in the Kirstie Alley beauty pageant comedy "Drop Dead Gorgeous." Alley was so impressed with Adams' abilities, she advised the young actress to give Los Angeles a go.

It didn't take Adams long to snag the female lead opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can." It was a juicy part that was supposed to be her big break but, afterward, Adams found herself back in the margins of TV shows and movies.

And then came her turn as the perennially chipper Ashley Johnsten in "Junebug." Few saw the indie film but Adams managed to snare an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress.

Next up for Adams is "Sunshine Cleaning," an indie about crime-scene scrubbers co-starring Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin.

"I usually play upbeat characters and my character in "Sunshine Cleaning' is living a bleak existence," she says. "You spend the whole day feeling bad and then you get home and have to pull yourself out of it. That was a new challenge for me.

"I was, like, "Ugh! I don't know if I can ever play a depressed person again.' I remember thinking, "This is hard!' "

Amy Longsdorf for The Courier-Post