Actor of the Week: Amy Adams
Amy Adams is up there with the best when it comes to Best Actress Nominations at the Academy Awards. Sadly she is yet to win one, but holding five nominations is no mean feat, making her an easy choice for this week’s Actor of the Week.
Funnily enough, Adams started her career off making one-off appearances in some of my favourite TV shows as a kid, such as Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and my favourite of all, Smallville. Weirdly, the Superman connection she made in Smallville seemed to stick with her, as we saw her take on the role of Lois Lane much later in her career, which I will touch on shortly.
Adams career is a very traditional in the sense that she started off in small parts within TV, then took those small parts in to film, seeing her star in the Spielberg classic Catch Me if You Can, where she starred alongside two former Actors of the Week; Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Catch Me if You Can is a brilliant film based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, a fraudster who was brilliant at forging documents creating identity after identity. Here, Adams played the girlfriend of one of Frank’s identities. Not only did she star in Catch Me if You Can, she also had a small part in the comedy classic Talladega Nights, where she starred alongside another former actor of the week, Will Ferrell.
Weirdly, in between these smaller roles, Adams earned herself her first Oscar nomination, for her role in Junebug. But even though Adams was granted one of the biggest honours in the industry, this still didn’t make her a household name until she found herself in the Disney Classic, Enchanted. Enchanted sees Adams play Giselle, a princess who goes from the cartoon fairytale land we are all aware of, where animals talk and the prince charmings save the day, to the real life world we all live in. This is a brilliant kids film, about a princess who sees the world in a completely different way to us all and ends up inspiring people, such as the lead actor, Patrick Dempsey, to see the good in the world like Giselle does.
Soon after Enchanted, Adams earned herself yet another nomination by the academy for her role in the film Doubt, which then lead Adams into the sequel to Night at the Museum, seeing her play the legendary pilot, Amelia Earhart.
With Adams now having a solid history of acting behind her, this inevitably opened up more doors, which led her to one of my favourite performances of hers, and also saw another Academy Award nomination gained; this being the role of Charlene Fleming in The Fighter. Charlene was the girlfriend of up-and-coming boxer Micky Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg. The Fighter is a brilliant story of a talented boxer who is torn between following his career and supporting his drug addicted brother, Dicky Ecklund, played by yet another former AotW, Christian Bale. A brilliant drama, based on a true story, Adams is a huge part of The Fighter’s success.
Adams went on to star alongside Bale again further on in her career, which earned her another Academy Award nomination, for her role in American Hustle. This was her fifth nomination, which was after the one she received for her role in the film The Master.
Adams has had an incredibly successful career and has played so many different types of roles, but there is one role that, for me, is one that hits closest to home, and that is her role as Lois Lane in the DCEU. Even though most of the films within the DCEU haven’t been a huge success, this isn’t down to Adams. I personally never thought Adams was a great fit for Lois Lane, but she definitely put her all into the role, which for someone with such a wealth of acting experience, is a lot. She gives this character a lot of respect, especially in a franchise that is struggling and could potentially tarnish her career. The fact she hasn’t bailed on this character, like Ben Affleck seems to want to do with Batman, as soon as things get hard, makes me respect her even more, as for someone with a wealth of Oscar nominations behind her, she doesn’t have to stick around for this role, but she does.
Adams truly is one of the most successful actresses of my generation and even though she is yet to win an Oscar, five nominations, in such a small window, is truly incredible, making it only a matter of time before she does win one. Thanks Amy!
