Amy Adams Cinema Vanguard Award

Amy Adams Tribute reviewed by Laura Wyatt. Seen at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, 2013.

Born in Italy, raised in Colorado, and starring in Hollywood. That is some insight into the life of versatile actress Amy Adams and may explain why she seems to be able to slip so easily into any role thrown her way.

Ms. Adams was honored last week with the Cinema Vanguard award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, an award given to risk takers. Well deserved? I should say so. Just take a look at the diversity of her films: The Master, The Muppets, Doubt, The Fighter, Enchanted, Trouble with the Curve and June Bug. She plays women that are tough, smart, naive, manipulated and flawed. She looks like the girl next door and can mold into anything the director asks her to be. In the last 7 years Ms. Adams has been nominated for four Oscars.

We were treated to a wonderful evening of insight into what makes her tick. She sat down with Pete Hammond who writes for Deadline.com and has his pulse on Hollywood. It felt intimate even though there were many hundreds of people in the audience. People that adore Amy Adams.

She started at the beginning and reminded us she has been in the business for 12 years but before that worked as a greeter at the Gap and a hostess at Hooters. She was trying to make enough money to buy a car and gain her independence. But even before that she struggled with insecurity and wanting to be liked. She didn’t think she was special enough and never thought she would be successful at anything, especially acting. She started acting for the love of it and soon realized it was okay not to be perfect.

She talked about wanting to quit acting after 9-11 and join the Peace Corp; she felt she needed to do something that was really important. Friends talked her out of it and she came back to acting with a renewed passion.

The room became silent when watching clips of her performance in June Bug where she plays a very emotional scene as a mother who has lost a child. After the clip Mr. Hammond asked how she was able to get to “that place” emotionally. She wasn’t sure but did tell the director she could only do three takes of the highly charged scene because she was “afraid if she did too many takes, she wouldn’t be able to come back to herself”. She got very teary eyed as she recalled mothers approaching her after the movie was released to tell her how much her portrayal meant to them.

She was charming, open and self effacing. She was also frank, and honest and a breath of fresh air. I felt as if she were talking just to me and that she had never opened up like this before. She made us all feel very special even though we were the ones that came to see her.


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