Amy Adams is currently promoting Nightbitch, adapted from Rachel Yoder’s book of the same name. It’s about a new mother who gives up her career for her baby and starts to feel like she’s turning into a dog. When the film was announced, it reminded many 30 Rock fans of the kind of jokey film title in Tracy Jordan’s CV. But Nightbitch is real, and it premiered at TIFF, to mixed reviews. People love Amy Adams and people want the best for her. But no one is sure that this is the best project for her. Still, Amy loves the film and she’s very happy to talk about it. Amy covers the latest issue of Variety, and here are some highlights from the interview:
On her “look” in Nightbitch: “I’ve had people be like, ‘Oh my gosh, you looked awful.’ I was like, ‘You do realize that’s what I look like in my life, right?’ 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.”
When she became a mother to her now-14-year-old daughter Aviana: “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.”
The Nightbitch chin hairs were grown by Adams, they weren’t CGI: 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! 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.”
On the mixed reviews: “It could be polarizing. I’m kind of like, ‘If you know, you know!’ 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.”
A six-time Oscar nominee, with no wins: “I am entirely grateful for it, and it also draws attention to films that might not otherwise get eyes on them.”
On Rachel Brosnahan taking the Lois Lane role in James Gunn’s “Superman.” “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….Coming from theater, a role never belongs to you. You just do a take on it. That’s how I feel about that franchise.”
Working with 22-year-old Jenna Ortega: “I learn so much from the young women that I work with. I feel like I learn more from them than they could ever learn from me. I do forget that I’m not their age sometimes. I’m like, ‘Amy, you’re 50. You’re not gonna hang!’”
Life as a 50-year-old woman: “It gets so much better. But there are things I miss: my joints working, collagen, things like that.”
Amy’s admission that she grew her chin hairs herself… omg. A brave new world for actresses, honestly. Some women – many women? – have facial hair. I tweeze my chin hairs at the same time I’m grooming my increasingly chaotic eyebrows. It IS catfish-like. As for thinking that she could hang with Jenna Ortega… that’s funny. I can actually picture their conversations and vibe together. Amy looking at Jenna with those wide eyes, thinking that Jenna is the coolest girl in the world. And Jenna is probably like… Amy should come to the club!
For Variety’s Power of Women:
Amy Adams Goes Wild: The ‘Nightbitch’ Star on Barking, Growing Chin Hair and ‘Polarizing’ Viewers With Her Raw Look at Motherhood
https://t.co/JKELc9DqOx pic.twitter.com/w4IWkfOJTE— Variety (@Variety) October 22, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Amy Adams attends a Headline Gala for ‘Nightbitch’ at The 68th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London, England, UK on Wednesday 16 October, 2024.,Image: 922036185, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/Retna/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- Amy Adams attends a Headline Gala for ‘Nightbitch’ at The 68th BFI London Film Festival at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London, England, UK on Wednesday 16 October, 2024.,Image: 922036220, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/Retna/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- Amy Adams attends ‘ Nightbitch ’ – Headline Gala during the BFI London Film Festival, at the Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall in London, England. UK. Wednesday 16th October 2024 -,Image: 922282311, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: LFF – Nightbitch – Headline Gala, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Amy Adams attends ‘ Nightbitch ’ – Headline Gala during the BFI London Film Festival, at the Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall in London, England. UK. Wednesday 16th October 2024 -,Image: 922282390, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: LFF – Nightbitch – Headline Gala, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Amy Adams attends ‘ Nightbitch ’ – Headline Gala during the BFI London Film Festival, at the Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall in London, England. UK. Wednesday 16th October 2024 -,Image: 922282404, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: LFF – Nightbitch – Headline Gala, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Amy Adams attends ‘ Nightbitch ’ – Headline Gala during the BFI London Film Festival, at the Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall in London, England. UK. Wednesday 16th October 2024 -,Image: 922282416, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: LFF – Nightbitch – Headline Gala, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
I love her so much for this. Chin whiskers come for us all, and the first one feels like such a betrayal. You have got to be kidding me, I have been dedicated to hair removal for decades! How dare you spring wirey hairs from my chin to torment me!
I carefully search in the mirror in good light before I leave the house, but I swear they grow as I’m walking to the car. I keep a tiny little set in there too!
SAME.
I think about that sometimes, what I would take on a remote island. Jokingly…. tweezers and a mirror for the chin and upper lip hair.
Omg yes! They grow SO fast!!!!
Same – it’s like they have magical growing powers and unfortunately the best light to see them always seems to be in the car!
Around the world these are collectively known as “car tweezers”. We need a club.
“things I miss: my joints working, collagen, things like that.”
ROFL
This hits hard. If you’re younger than 40 and think this is not going to happen to me, I have bad news for you.
I just love everything she said.
Team Amy!
FYI: not every woman has to wait for perimenopause. Some of us have been dealing with this since puberty.
I love her too! And I was so naive as to think “things like that” might not/probably wouldn’t happen to me. Notwithstanding having read two very good books on menopause (Haver’s “The New Menopause” and Gunter’s “Menopause Manifesto”) I walked around for 2 days thinking I had the flu because I would randomly break a sweat. Hot flashes do not feel like what I expected (but neither did intercourse, childbirth, nursing and any number of things). I love that we are having more open dialog and representation of this SIGNIFICANT portion of womens’ lives. Like 15 years!!!!
Yes!!
My one daughter introduced me to Tinkle razors … I was convinced that if I used them, my facial hair would grow back worse, because that’s what I was always told … my daughter just laughed and said, “That’s not how it works.”
She was right, of course.
I appreciate Amy’s candor here, but this movie sounds awful.
i think i would enjoy parts of the movie. but im not going to watch simply for the violence against the cat =\ life is already too chaotic and awful, i dont need to purposefully add to it.
I thought I would hate that part to, the turning into the dog stuff.
But I’ve just come through a number of years of feeling more and more that I was losing myself to just being the family pack-mule (physically and emotionally), like I didn’t exist to my household outside of managing the stuff.
So this film might be right up my alley. 😜
All my adult life I have had 1-2 chin hairs that randomly pop up.
I’m going to be 40 in Dec and dammit. The last 6-9 months I have like 5-10 that just randomly sprout. I swear overnight sometime.
I’m so torn on this movie! I loveeee Amy Adams and I’ve seen almost all of her work …. but I really disliked this book. 🫤 It wasn’t entirely unrelatable, as a woman who gave up a career in the arts to be a full-time parent I could for sure understand the Mother character, but the magical realism aspect of turning into a dog kind of lost me. The trailer also seems to turn it into a comedy of sorts? I’d love for Amy to get her Oscar but hopefully not for this 🥴
I really disliked the book too. I am a mom and could certainly relate to themes in the book, but I found it to just not be an enjoyable read at all. It was short, or I may not have finished it.
OMG. I just watched the trailer. There was nothing cute or funny about the book, and the trailer def looks like a comedy. (Which…odd…but maybe I’s like that version better?)
I am blessed with chin hairs that will turn around and burrow back into my face in a corkscrew pattern that eventually razor my skin open into a horrible wound. Sometimes these hairs will appear on other parts of my body as well. It’s great! Highly recommend!
These pictures made my day, honestly. I am struggling with seeing some changes in the mirror lately and seeing someone with some wrinkles and neck lines and a few chin hairs who I think is beautiful was a little boost to myself! She looks amazing…. might skip the movie though.
I have been battling thick dark chin hairs for years. I have tried everything to get rid of them. Nothing lasts long term *sigh* it’s my Waterloo.
Electrolysis works…but you have to keep going in order to get them in the growing phase
Dawn child, how long? I’ve been doing electrolysis for 5 months now, it costs a fortune! It also seems like it’s not working and I’m thinking about giving up!