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| Amy Adams. Image: Wikimedia |
There’s no question that Amy Adams is considered every
moviegoer’s darling with her charm and sunny disposition which she imbues both
on and off screen.
Born Amy Lou Adams on August 20, 1974 in Vicenza, Italy,
Adams got her first taste of performing for a crowd when she joined her school
choir during high school while training as a ballerina. After high school, she
entered the musical theatre scene.
When she was 18, she was working as a Gap
store greeter to support herself while acting on community theatres. She later
on worked as a hostess in Hooters before launching a career on stage in dinner
theaters. Adams later admitted that only reason why she became an actor was because she "needed a job."
"I graduated high school and I didn’t have a skill set and I didn’t want to go to college. I needed a job. This is what I could do. And I like it, but it can be very painful. You feel so vulnerable all the time on set, so exposed," she explained.
In 1999, she made her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was followed
by a slew of guest appearances on TV and small roles in B-movies.
Her first
major role came when she grabbed the part of Brenda Strong in Catch Me If You
Can (2002). Her breakthrough came next in indie flick Junebug (2005). There,
she played the role of the young, gay and garrulous pregnant woman named Ashley
Johnsten. Her performance was strong enough to earn her an Academy Award
nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
The pressures of initial success of course had their toll on Adams' life. In an interview with Elle UK, she confesses: "I choked. I felt this pressure to suddenly be this level of actress that I wasn’t confident enough to be. I did a series of really bad auditions, I let the nerves get the best of me."
She eventually managed to pull herself through. Adams then hit her first commercial success after being cast
as Princess Giselle in the colossally successful film Enchanted (2007). Her
performance grabbed her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
In a press release interview, Adams revealed that we both "flattered" and "well little intimidated" about her character.
"Her [Giselle's] waist is a lot smaller than mine so I thought there'd be no late night Mexican food binges while shooting this. But I thought they did a really good job at capturing some of my quirks and my movements. I run pigeon-toed and she does too. Sometimes you get self-conscious because you know they're looking for what will define this character. I just think they're so wonderful. Like I said, I grew up watching those films and James Baxter's animation so it was a huge compliment to me to be animated by him," she explained.
In 2008, Adams scored her second Academy Award and Golden
Globe Award nominations portraying a young nun, Sister James, in Doubt, opposite Meryl Streep.
Amy Adams is highly regarded and well-lauded for her
versatility. Her performances indeed varied from romantic comedies to serious
dramas. However, she is still best remembered for her cheerful characters,
something that moviegoers are always excited to see on screen.
In 2009, Adams was featured as Amelia Earhart in Night at the Museum: Battle of the
Smithsonian. The same year, she was cast once again opposite Meryl Streep in
Julie & Julia where she played the
role of writer Julie Powell.
2010 was another banner year for her, as her role as
Charlene Fleming in The Fighter scored
her her her third Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, her second BAFTA nomination,
and her fifth Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. The film, as well as
Adams’ costars Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo (who won the
Oscars for best supporting actress) also got critical nods.
In 2012, Adams rendered another Oscar-nominated performance
for best supporting actress for her role as Peggy Dodd, Philip Seymour
Hoffman’s coldblooded and control-freak wife in The Master.
In 2013, she was landed the role of Lois Lane in the 2013
Superman film Man of Steel.
