Amy Adams

Adams said being in her 50s is the best time of her life and that she feels grounded and grateful.

“I'm 51 now and I think being in my 50s is the greatest. I'm so grounded and I just feel grateful”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 53:14

Adams said dressing in costume for early auditions made her look too eager, which is probably why it did not work at first.

“I guess I look like I want it too much, which is probably why it didn't work in the beginning. I hadn't sort of cracked the code of neutrality”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 46:03

Adams said filming Leap Year taught her that romantic comedy was not her strength.

“filming Leap Year, like this romantic comedy, which helped me learn that I was not good at romantic comedy, though I loved the film”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 42:06

Adams recounted running with her father to help a man who had been stabbed in the neck in Santa Monica.

“We ran over and he'd been stabbed in the neck”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 22:11

Adams said she hopes to volunteer at Cedars-Sinai after retiring from acting.

“I have this fantasy that when I retire from acting, I'm going to be one of the seniors that volunteers down at Cedars”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 16:38

Adams said she still gets nervous in front of a camera but finds it more intimate than the stage.

“I still get nervous in front of a camera, but it's such an intimate thing and you have one person you can focus on”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 14:32

Adams said she never expected to become an actress because she was a shy musical-theater kid with paralyzing stage fright.

“I never thought I was going to be an actress. I was such a musical theater kid and mostly trained in ballet, but I was so shy, and I had paralyzing stage fright”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 13:56

Adams said she will always want to impress Paul Thomas Anderson.

“Paul is one of those people that I will forever want to impress”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 42:49

Adams said Enchanted was the only role she felt was unquestionably hers, despite not usually being competitive.

“I would cast someone else in every role I've done. Like, I'm not competitive like that. But I read that one and was like, well, well, this is mine”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 41:02

Adams said she did not finish the Telepathy Tapes podcast because it took a twist toward the end.

“I didn't get towards the end of the telepathy. It started to get, I don't want to, you know, it started to get a little like, it twisted a bit”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 38:17

Adams said the Doubt rehearsals with Streep and Hoffman were her entire acting training, as she never attended college or conservatory.

“Getting to sit through the rehearsals with them, it's my entire actor training. I never went to college or conservatory”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 34:28

Adams said eight stage shows a week is grueling and that she would have to seriously consider returning to theater.

“doing that eight shows a week is really, really grueling. And so I'd have to really consider it”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 28:17

Adams said she had to play Arrival so the audience first read scenes as flashbacks and later understood them as flash-forwards.

“I had to live in those, in that duality of like letting the audience think that it was flashbacks, but then on a rewatch, understanding that it was a flash forward”

SmartLess: "Amy Adams" (Jun 22, 2026) · Listen from 8:47