“I’ve had people be like, ‘Oh my gosh, you looked awful,’” Amy Adams says with an eye roll as she reflects on her physical appearance in her latest film, “Nightbitch,” about a struggling stay-at-home mom who — go with us here — sometimes turns into a dog. “I was like, ‘You do realize that’s what I look like in my life, right?’”
Considering the role sees Adams bounding around on all fours, six nipples swaying in the breeze, and chowing down on a bowl of meatloaf on hands and knees, some frumpy clothes and frizzy hair hardly feel like the bravest part of her performance.
In Marielle Heller’s surreal, often biting examination of motherhood, Adams’ character is upset over having given up a fulfilling career as an artist to become her baby’s primary caregiver (a role she finds stifling), with only her clueless husband (Scoot McNairy) to help her — or not. “Happiness is a choice,” he tells Adams (called Mother in the film), who fantasizes about giving him a good slap. Overwhelmed by the endless demands of looking after a small child — from dealing with sleepless nights to temper tantrums — a frustrated Mother unleashes her inner beast, digging holes in the front yard and howling at the moon.
While that canine transformation gave Adams plenty to sink her teeth into as an actor, she’s adamant that “Nightbitch” isn’t about lycanthropy, a psychological disorder where a person imagines themselves as an animal. Much like Charlize Theron in “Tully,” Adams’ character’s break from reality ultimately helps her deal with the all-consuming weight of motherhood: She finds her pack (a group of other moms she once thought could never understand her) and releases years of pent-up rage toward her incompetent husband.
“I love the metaphor of her connecting with a more primal and feral side of herself in order to learn how to let go and be present and engaged and flexible and find her joy,” Adams says.
The film’s fantastical premise may be what draws folks to theaters this December, but “Nightbitch” is, at its core, a “Yellow Wallpaper”-esque commentary on the ways mothers are sometimes forced by circumstances, financial or otherwise, to abandon their professional lives in order to tend to their children.
Adams, herself a mother to 14-year-old daughter Aviana, remembers how challenging those early days of parenting were, even with help from her husband, Darren Le Gallo, and her six siblings. “Every moment needed to be dedicated to the care and keeping of my child,” she says, adding that, while her relationship with Le Gallo was “more equitable” than the marriage in “Nightbitch,” it was tough to be the first of her friend group to become a mother. “Motherhood did redirect my priorities. And I think that changed some relationships. That was hard, but I don’t think it’s uncommon.”
Mother, who can be bitter and brittle, is a far cry from the plucky, hopeful ingenue roles that Adams became known for in the 2000s, like the effervescent young wife in “Junebug” and the candy-coated Princess Giselle in “Enchanted.” But getting to this unvarnished point was a process. “I was just very naive, and I think I was really afraid to show any truth or darkness about the flip side of the human experience,” Adams says of her early days in the industry. “I would have felt so vulnerable and so exposed.”
She’s not afraid anymore, though, delivering her most go-for-broke performance yet in “Nightbitch,” playing a person whose frustration and resentment is relatable even if her response to the pressure is extreme. While the naivete that first endeared Adams to audiences may be gone, she’s not a cynic. “I’m a true pragmatic person, leaning towards optimist,” she says.
On an unseasonably hot October day in the Beverly Hills office of Adams’ production company, Bond Group Entertainment, the actress looks classic in a white button-down paired with jeans and black mules, her hair pulled into a chignon.
Don’t call the look cool, though — it’s the one moniker Adams has always rejected. “I’m dorky, and I’m OK with it,” she says, detailing her favorite TikTok rabbit holes as of late: Disneyland influencers and ballerinas’ pointe shoe try-ons.
She’s not afraid of looking silly, which is partly why transforming into a dog for “Nightbitch” came easily for her. Well, except for one thing. “Her bark was really high,” Heller says. “I was like, ‘We gotta channel some big dog energy for you here. We need some BDE.’”
Adams laughs. “I don’t think that’s surprising to anyone. I’m more like a golden retriever!” (They may technically be big dogs, but their gentle nature is a little more her speed than the Husky her character unleashes.)
In an early scene, Mother discovers new hair growing on her chin, and Adams eagerly volunteered to grow the hair herself. “The hair on the face — that was mine,” she says proudly. “I saw it as a wonderful expression of the human experience without any artifice or filters. Or tweezers!” She adds, “I have that kind of hair that just grows overnight. One day it’s not there, and the next day it’s like I’m a catfish. That might turn some people away.” She bursts into laughter, because she really doesn’t care.
When “Nightbitch” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, it earned mixed responses from critics and audiences — some found the story muddled and heavy-handed, while others embraced it as a cutting feminist allegory. Adams isn’t surprised, given that its source material, Rachel Yoder’s novel of the same name, was met with a similar “love it or hate it” reception.
“It could be polarizing. I’m kind of like, ‘If you know, you know!’” Adams says. “It deals with friendship, community, relationships, motherhood, parenthood. It hits on a lot of different ancestral wounds. So if it hits you, that’ll make me really happy.”
Of course, as a six-time Oscar nominee, Adams is keenly aware of the awards chatter already surrounding her performance in the Searchlight pic. She insists it’s not in her nature to be competitive, though, instead looking on the bright side of being a perennial contender who still hasn’t had a chance to deliver an acceptance speech.
“I am entirely grateful for it, and it also draws attention to films that might not otherwise get eyes on them,” she says. Adams delivers this statement so earnestly, you really believe her.
It’s the quality director Denis Villeneuve picked up on when Adams led his 2016 sci-fi film “Arrival.” “My first impression of Amy was that she was very thoughtful, intelligent, quiet, modest, cheerful and that she had beautiful, bright and incredibly expressive eyes,” he writes in an email. “I realized that these eyes would have the power to make us believe in an unknown life-form.”
When Adams founded Bond Group alongside her manager, Stacy O’Neil, in 2019, they shared a simple goal: building a ladder to elevate women in Hollywood. Producing “Nightbitch” is the latest rung in that ladder for the company, which signed a first-look TV deal with Fifth Season in 2022.
“When we were at Toronto, I was so excited to see so many, not only female-led, but female-directed films,” Adams says. “I think those stories should be told. I think it starts really important conversations that should be had. So for me, that was a big part of [producing].”
That dogged support of other women extends to projects she’s not producing or acting in. For example, Adams says she’s happy for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan as she takes on the role of Lois Lane in James Gunn’s “Superman,” even though Adams previously played the reporter and love interest to Clark Kent in several DC Extended Universe films.
“I love her. She’s gonna be great. Hopefully the role will be infused with her sensibility and her natural humor and strength and wit,” Adams says, also confirming that she was never under the impression she’d be returning for more “Superman” adventures after her final appearance in “Justice League.”
She makes a point to praise her own Man of Steel, Henry Cavill, adding, “Henry was a really brilliant Superman. I offer every Superman luck and stuff, but I think he was great. I just wanted to say that. It’s so in his spirit.”
Adams knows, though, that the iconic roles were only theirs for a fleeting moment. “Coming from theater, a role never belongs to you. You just do a take on it. That’s how I feel about that franchise.”
Adams is also eager to work with the new generation of actors, raving about 22-year-old Jenna Ortega, with whom she stars in Taika Waititi’s upcoming “Klara and the Sun” adaptation. “I learn so much from the young women that I work with,” she says. “I feel like I learn more from them than they could ever learn from me.” She laughs. “I do forget that I’m not their age sometimes. I’m like, ‘Amy, you’re 50. You’re not gonna hang!’”
She may not be hanging with Ortega, but there are benefits to getting older, both in her career and in life. “It gets so much better,” she says. “But there are things I miss: my joints working, collagen, things like that.”
“She’s the real deal,” Franco Vega says about Amy Adams and her commitment to The RightWay Foundation, for which he is CEO and founder.
Adams is an ambassador for RightWay, which gives young people aging out of foster care the resources they need to build a life for themselves. Started in 2011, RightWay offers safe housing, mental health resources, employment readiness workshops and financial capability coaching.
“It struck me as a very underserviced community,” Adams says of why she chose to get involved more than a decade ago. When kids exit the system, she explains, they experience disproportionate rates of homelessness, incarceration, food insecurity and trauma.
“RightWay’s doors are open to this community of foster children,” says Adams, who regularly meets with program participants. “It’s been wonderful to get to be a witness to that and help in any way I can.”
When Adams got married in 2015, she asked her guests donate to RightWay in lieu of giving gifts. “I wish there were more people like her,” Vega says.
In the years since she began working with RightWay, Adams says she’s personally seen massive growth in its impact on the community. Between July 2023 and June 2024, RightWay was able to support 180 young adults in L.A.
Adams’ hope is that more people will treat these young adults with the same compassion RightWay does. “RightWay’s level of acceptance, understanding and empathy is what we need right now.”
Styling: Petra Flannery; Makeup: Stephen Sollitto/TMG-LA; Hair: John Dahlstrom/Forward Artists; Manicure: Alex Jachno/Opus Beauty; Top and skirt: Ferragamo; Jewelry: Vernier
From Variety US