Amy Lou Adams born August 20, is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. Adams began her career as a dancer in dinner theater , which she pursued from to , and made her film debut with a supporting part in the dark comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous She made guest appearances in television and took on "mean girl" parts in low-budget feature films. Her breakthrough came when she portrayed a loquacious pregnant woman in the independent comedy-drama Junebug , for which she received her first Academy Award nomination.
The musical fantasy film Enchanted , where Adams played a cheerful princess-to-be, was her first success as a leading lady. Further acclaim came for playing a linguist in the science fiction film Arrival , a self-harming reporter in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects , and Lynne Cheney in the satire Vice In , she was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time , and featured in the Forbes Celebrity list.
Adams was raised as a Mormon until her parents divorced in and left the church. She was not academically inclined, but was interested in the creative arts and sang in the school choir. She competed in track and gymnastics, harbored ambitions of becoming a ballerina, and trained as an apprentice at the local David Taylor Dance Company. Adams began her professional career as a dancer in a dinner theater production of A Chorus Line in Boulder, Colorado.
She enjoyed singing and dancing, but disliked waitressing and ran into trouble when a fellow dancer, whom she considered a friend, made false accusations about her to the director. I only knew I kept getting called in and lectured about my lack of professionalism. My body was wearing out. During her time at Chanhassen, Adams acted in her first filmβa black-and-white short satire named The Chromium Hook.
In Los Angeles, Adams auditioned for whatever parts came her way, but she was mostly given roles of "the bitchy girl". Club wrote that Adams plays her "alpha-bitch role with vicious glee largely missing from Sarah Michelle Gellar's sterile take on the character". Adams next had a supporting role as the teenage nemesis of a movie star played by Kimberly Davies in Psycho Beach Party , a horror parody of beach party and slasher films.
