Amy Adams takes a walk down memory lane as she rewatches scenes from her classic works including 'Enchanted,' 'Arrival,' 'The Fighter,' 'Man of Steel,' 'Julie & Julia,' 'Catch Me If You Can' and 'Nightbitch.'
Director: Funmi Sunmonu
Director of Photography: Matt Kreuger
Editor: Louis Lalire
Talent: Amy Adams
Producer: Emebeit Beyene
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza
Camera Operator: Shay Eberle - Gunst
Audio Engineer: Gloria Hernandez
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Lily Starck
Set Designer: Leah Water-Katz
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director: Funmi Sunmonu
Director of Photography: Matt Kreuger
Editor: Louis Lalire
Talent: Amy Adams
Producer: Emebeit Beyene
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza
Camera Operator: Shay Eberle - Gunst
Audio Engineer: Gloria Hernandez
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Lily Starck
Set Designer: Leah Water-Katz
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00They sent me the script and they're like they want to talk to you about Charlene
00:04and I was like Charlene gets in the fist fight Charlene?
00:09And they're like yeah yeah and I was like I feel seen.
00:13Hi I'm Amy Adams and we're gonna watch a few scenes from throughout my career.
00:17All right let's get going here.
00:30I just remember what a dream it was to be in Central Park.
00:51I didn't go to New York until I was 24 and I remember the first time that I found Central
00:56Park it just felt like very specific energy specifically magic this idea of an oasis
01:03inside of this huge bustling city and the intention behind it to create the space for
01:08everybody and so to get to go and do a musical number in this place that had become so special
01:12to me was really really such a treat like a dream like a dream come true.
01:26Patrick's reaction throughout this whole scene I think that's my husband's favorite
01:30part of the movie.
01:38He was such a great foil to her optimism.
01:41You know his like cynicism and disbelief at what he's seeing he he just towed that
01:45line so perfectly.
01:50Aw she's a baby.
01:52That was the director's daughter Kevin Lima's daughter and that's the choreographer down
01:57there in the pattern shirt next to Patrick.
01:59At the time I mean I hadn't been professionally singing for a long time and I was more of
02:04somebody who was like featured in the chorus not really a soloist and this one just had
02:09like rapid fire not a lot of room for breath and so technically it was like the hardest
02:14one to sort of get down but yeah it'd be fun to try to sing it again because since
02:19then I've done a lot of karaoke and I think I could tackle this one now.
02:22I feel pretty confident.
02:27I mean I do sort of but then I will regret it like I'm the kind of person that's like
02:32yeah I'm totally gonna do that and then I'm like why did I do that?
02:40He's your love.
02:44Enchanted's probably one of the films of mine I've seen the most in sharing it with
02:48nieces and nephews or them wanting to watch it with me my daughter watching it and it
02:53was nice to revisit it sort of before we did Disenchanted I spent a lot of time with it
02:58and I was like I really I really like this movie you know it's nice to have distance
03:02from it and to be able to see it for the absolute joy that it was it was so much fun making.
03:09I need you to send a message to the other sites.
03:24I actually came to this role I just finished a really challenging production and I was
03:29like I need a break I don't want to read anything I'm getting ready to go do another
03:32production and so I was like I'm not I don't want to read anything and very smartly my
03:38team of amazing women said you can do that right after you read this and so I got to
03:42meet with Denis and he just had a beautiful way of talking about it.
03:47A he clearly is gifted visually and has a wonderful way of creating like an emotional
03:54resonance inside of very surreal worlds you know but they feel so grounded and so real
03:59but aside from that he's so respectful and so thoughtful so open he has an emotional
04:07intelligence that is is really beautiful to witness.
04:11He said that although he sees it with the science fiction element that it's a mother's
04:16story and I think that really resonated with me.
04:32One of them had had it's weird I don't want to give spoiler alerts but I suppose if
04:37go watch Arrival if you see this you don't want any spoiler alerts go watch Arrival.
04:41One of them is no longer he'd expired so I think I can't remember if this is Abbott
04:47or Costello which I feel really strangely bad about and he's sort of explaining to me
04:52like what's going on and who who my daughter is.
04:56First off I was devastated and it made me look at the story so differently and then
05:15I immediately went back and read it again kind of in the same way that I was talking
05:18about like wanting people to see it again with a new perspective and saw the whole character
05:24in a different perspective because I had thought her as a person in mourning and so I worked
05:28really hard to to build up her backstory and her future story so she was a really fun character
05:35to work on.
05:53It was unlike anything that was sort of being put in front of me at that time
06:12and I was in Ireland doing Leap Year I remember and they sent me the script and they're like
06:20they want to talk to you about Charlene and I was like Charlene gets in the fistfight Charlene.
06:35And they're like yeah yeah and I was like I feel seen.
06:40I'm one of seven kids so like we grew up kind of tough and really like you know you never
06:45back down you know so I that was like a world I mean not exactly but I understood that world so
06:51it was nice to get to sort of step into a different type of role move in a different
06:57direction than some of the roles that I'd played before that were a little bit more
07:01wide-eyed or naive and I'm really grateful that I had that opportunity to do that.
07:06Why are you surrendering to Zod?
07:10I'm surrendering to mankind. There's a difference.
07:14You let them handcuff you?
07:17Wouldn't be much for surrender if I resisted.
07:19I don't know what it was about Superman growing up but I just loved it. He's so earnest there
07:23was an idealism this idea of like just somebody with the best of intentions and
07:28I just loved it. He's so earnest there was an idealism this idea of like just somebody with
07:34the best of intentions that you know always tried to fight for the right and I love that idea.
07:40Lois was one of my favorite characters growing up. I would pretend to be her.
07:44What's the S stand for?
07:49It's not an S.
07:52On my world it means hope.
07:53Well, here it's an S.
07:57I really like the challenge of working in these like really large sets that require
08:02a lot of imagination and a lot of world building and get to work on this set with Henry and Michael
08:08Shannon and all the other actors. I was really just soaking it in. One of the things I like
08:12about the the superhero canons is for me it's kind of it's almost like theater in a way it's
08:17like different people take on the role and the role doesn't belong to one person.
08:21What advice would you give Rachel Brumham who is going to be the next Lois Lane?
08:24Oh, just have fun. Just have fun and I'm sure she will. She's wonderful and I hope she gets
08:29to bring her sense of humor to it. She's got such a great sensibility, such a good actress,
08:35but also such great natural comedic timing and I hope we get to see some of that in it.
08:41I'm sure you all remember because it was only a few days ago that I had a meltdown over my
08:45aspic and vowed to transform myself into a better human being. And then I was trussing the poulet
08:53roti a la normande. I don't know how to type. Still don't know how to type. Chicken livers
08:57and cream cheese and it fell on the floor and the stuffing fell out into a big thick
09:02mess. And then I was trying to figure out what to do with it. I was trying to figure out how to
09:07and it fell on the floor and the stuffing fell out into a big gooey mess. I haven't seen this
09:11scene in so long. Crazy! Worse than the last. The wonderful thing about working with somebody
09:19who's written a memoir is you have this really great resource material. Also at some point
09:24imagination has to take over because you're sort of assuming a lot of unwritten and unspoken. But
09:29I really loved the difference between her experience with cooking and sort of coming
09:34to herself and her identity and paralleling that with Julia Child while she was spending her time
09:39in France and writing the novel. You can really tell that Nora Ephron has a love of food in this
09:47because the way that the food is treated as a character is really beautiful and it's kind of
09:52where I started to really focus on cooking in my life. So it was a great gift. I learned how to
09:58poach an egg and I know that that's the thing I probably use the most. My daughter really likes
10:02poached eggs so that's been the most useful. And an omelette. Eggs. Eggs and omelettes.
10:13You know sometimes when I travel I use the name Frank Taylor. That's my secret. Frank Taylor?
10:18Yeah Frank Taylor you know. Frank Black you know. Frank Black? Yeah it doesn't matter.
10:22Why are you saying all this? This is a real baby. Both of us. I'm not a doctor. I never went to
10:27medical school. I'm not a lawyer or a Harvard graduate or a Lutheran. Brenda I ran away from
10:32home a year and a half ago when I was 16. Frank? You're not a Lutheran? Brenda. Sweet, sweet Brenda.
10:46I have enough money to last us the rest of our lives. Malia is very, very gifted as an actor. I
10:52think we all know that but working with it and seeing it it's like so natural out of him. It's
10:56really kind of a wonder to witness. There's this beautiful moment. He's climbed out the window.
11:02We're making plans. There's like lace and it's beautifully lit. You're gonna take a taxi kid.
11:06I'm gonna take a taxi. You're gonna be there at 10 a.m. I'll be there at 10 a.m. no matter what.
11:10In two days. Two days Brenda. And I have such a visceral memory of it and then the dollar bills
11:16kept hitting Leo in the face like in the middle of the face and of course that's the time I decided
11:21that that was the funniest thing and I just collapsed into giggles on the set with Steven
11:27Spielberg. I'm like holding up production because I cannot get it together because every time a
11:31dollar bill hits him in the face I'm like that's it. I just I don't know why. Just watching him get
11:37hit. That is my one regret. Although it's not so bad but I did have to pull it together. I think
11:45he got to the point where he saw the humor in it and I think it was the one that landed
11:48directly but he stayed super focused which then I thought was even funnier.
11:52Please, please, before you go please tell me your name. Please tell me.
11:59Frank William Abagnale Jr. And then I remember that was the day that I got to work with Tom
12:07Hanks as well because he came in and we had a scene that we did later on and that was pretty
12:11cool. I just never thought I would be working with that caliber of artists across the board
12:18from Steven Spielberg to Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. It was like a fever dream and I was
12:25so grateful and I was like pivotal in my life to have that opportunity and get to do that.
12:32Oh we need some crunchy snacks right? Hi. Oh hi. Oh my god Sally what are you doing here?
12:45I'm visiting my mom for the weekend. Oh baby this is Sally. Yeah Sally took over your mom's job at
12:52the gallery after you were born. Oh he's super cute. Do you just love getting to be home with
12:58them all the time? I think it's so much bigger than just sort of one aspect of motherhood or
13:05parenthood or relationships and I think that's what I love so much about doing it. It's an
13:10examination of community and society and identity and relationships and one of the things that really
13:17drew me to it aside from the parenthood and motherhood aspect is the deep need for relationship
13:24and communication and her relationship with her husband is really true, very authentic. If you've
13:30seen the movie, I apologize to my husband for saying that, but it rings very true
13:37and Scoot McNary did a wonderful job at sort of playing this person who has all of the best of
13:42intentions and just maybe not all of the information. I would love to feel content
13:48but instead I feel like I'm just stuck inside of a prison of my own creation where I torment myself
13:57until I'm left binge eating Big Newtons at midnight to keep from crying and I feel like
14:01societal norms and gender expectations and just plain old biology have forced me to become this
14:07person that I don't recognize and I'm just angry all the time like all the time. You know and I
14:13would love to direct some of my own artwork towards a critique of the modern day systems
14:17that articulate this but my brain just doesn't function the way that it did before I had the
14:22baby and I'm dumb now. I didn't want to talk through that because she talks there's not a lot
14:26of breaths in that monologue so I was just letting it kind of be. That's one of the things Mari did
14:31which I really love is the book had such a strong inner dialogue and so she was able to sort of
14:36bring this inner monologue out through these conversations with herself. A lot of her truth
14:42being espoused there and really giving voice and speaking that which we should not speak about is
14:47just like deep dissatisfaction and insecurities. It's always so surreal to see sort of like a
14:57retrospective. I'm reminded of the wonderful people I've gotten to work with and that I'm
15:02so grateful to have worked with. I want to go back and see some of the movies. I'm kind of like oh I
15:07haven't seen I don't know when I've seen Julia and Julia last and I know my daughter wants to
15:11see it so maybe we'll put that on the playlist but yeah I'd always feel somewhat nostalgic right
15:16and I think it's that year like I turned 50 this year so like everything feels like a retrospective
15:22but also like a new beginning because I feel really really focused on looking forward.