Amy Adams discusses getting into character for her role in the dark new HBO series “Sharp Objects” in a candid new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Adams, 43, who plays a deeply troubled newspaper reporter who cuts and draws all over her skin, insists it wasn’t an easy task.
Because such a lead usually goes to a male actor, Adams touches upon the ongoing #MeToo movement as she sat down with “Sharp Objects” novelist Gillian Flynn and show creator Marti Noxon for the chat.
The five-time Oscar nominee explains: “I think most women have experienced it, even if it’s just feeling unsafe rejecting somebody. And apologizing, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I must have been sending you the wrong signal,’ when, really, it’s like, ‘No, I think I said I don’t want to go out with you, I don’t know how that’s the wrong signal. I think we should just be friends and I’m not sure why you’re at my doorstep.’ It’s that unsafe feeling.
“I can’t say all, but most women have had that moment and you question yourself. ‘Did I smile? Was I not direct enough?’ There’s a reason I started playing nuns and virgins. I was like, ‘I’m not putting up with that anymore.'”
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Adams also speaks about having to undress on set so that her prosthetic scars could be applied to her body every day.
“I’m not an exhibitionist, I’m not somebody who naturally feels comfortable parading myself around in front of people, so I had to have a false bravado standing there naked. There was also a mirror right there and I had to confront my body and I’d stopped working out to play Camille because I thought, She’s not gonna be toned, it’s gonna be annoying if we see her naked and she looks like me in ‘American Hustle’.”
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The actress says that if she didn’t leave the set crying or feeling like she needed to cry, then she hadn’t done her job properly.
“Because Camille isn’t someone who’s going to cry in front of people, she’s going to internalize that pain. I felt like I had residual pain from her more than pain playing her.
“I also tend to be a sufferer of, like, 2-to-3 o’clock-in-the-morning insomnia, and that’s when Camille would catch up with me. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and have unexplained terror or self-loathing and I’d have to work my way out of it.”
