Women aren’t often recognised as method actors.There’s something about inhabiting a character, living in their skin, that’s been mistakenly seen as inherently masculine. We praise men like Daniel Day-Lewis and Christian Bale but fail to recognise the women who go to similar lengths. Every morning before shooting, Amy Adams spent three to four hours almost nude, as hundreds of prosthetic scars were grafted on to her body. Adams physically transformed to play Camille Preaker, a self-harming reporter at the heart of HBO’s latest miniseries Sharp Objects. On set, she settled into Camille’s life, changing her walk and jettisoning her identity in exchange for her character’s damaged aspect.The actress is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest of her generation. In little over a decade, she’s gone from obscurity to international celebrity, earning five Academy Award nominations along the way.

At once famously dedicated and fiercely capable,Adams has the rare ability to make a film a tour-de-force with her presence alone. In Junebug (2005), Adams anchored an otherwise saccharine film with her performance as a wide-eyed, fast-talking naïve from North Carolina.The film earned her an Oscar nomination and signalled her arrival.Over the course of the next few years,Adams cultivated a reputation as one of the industry’s top actresses, bringing the Disney princess archetype to life in Enchanted (2007) and acting alongside first lady of Hollywood Meryl Streep in Doubt (2008) and Julie & Julia (2009). Adams’s versatility isn’t so much impressive as it is alarming – she’s capable of throwing herself into roles with unmatched commitment, to the point where her actual personality is co-opted by her character off-screen.Turns in David O. Russell’s The Fighter (2010) and American Hustle (2013) further cemented Adams’ ability to metamorphose, capable of portraying a blue-collar barmaid and a salacious con-artist with uniform credibility. Rolls in The Muppets (2011), The Master (2012), Arrival (2016), and Nocturnal Animals (2016) point equally to her star-power and stunning range – she’s even made a contribution to Hollywood’s current comic book fervour, playing Lois Lane in DC’s array of Superman movies.

Sharp Objects is the start of a new era for Adams. It’s her first serious foray into television, where she serves as both lead and executive producer. The miniseries, adapted from the debut novel of Gillian Flynn (of Gone Girl fame), is the perfect accompaniment to our present moment, where the #MeToo movement coincides with an opportunity to tell stories about complicated female characters. In Sharp Objects, Adams travels unexplored territory – a dark and haunted character typically reserved for men.

Here,Amy speaks to her friend,the directorAdam McKay.This is the first conversation the two have had on the record about their upcoming film, Vice.

AA: Oh absolutely. I think it was the first place I learned about acting on film. Before then I hadn’t really done any film work. So I would sit behind the sound cart and they were very generous, they gave me some headphones so I could hear how the director was; I learned all the terminology by hanging out on set, out of the way. It was a quick education in film vocabulary.

AM: Do you find versatility is a good string to your bow? From a personal perspective, do you find that to be one of the key ingredients to maintaining and renewing a love for what you do? How being able to evade ‘type’ has informed your career over time?

AA:There isn’t an intention of versatility per se, there is an intention of trying new things to keep on being challenged. Challenge is the thing that keeps me creatively motivated. Challenge and the fear of failure. So if it looks like something I’ve done before, then I’m probably going to be less creatively challenged and motivated.

AM:That makes sense. Do you think it’s fair when people talk about Catch Me If You Can being a turning point for you?

AA:Yeah I think that’s completely fair.

AM: Did it change discernibly? Was it a light bulb moment for you when you were doing it or did you only realise afterwards, that offers were coming in or attention was being garnered?

AA: If I’m to be honest, working on it was really a career epiphany but I actually didn’t work much after that. It didn’t do what you would think it would do. For whatever reason, I’ve talked about it before probably because of my lack of security and overall lack confidence. I think for me, it really started to change after Junebug. But Catch Me If You Can led to Junebug, because the casting director brought me in based on Catch Me If You Can. So I think Junebug is when a real shift started happening and then there was Enchanted.That is when I really started seeing a difference and opportunity started availing itself in a different way.

AM: Given that opportunity availing itself, as things progressed, do you now find that you are in a resting place?

AA: It is funny that you would say I’m in a resting place because I’m sitting here getting ready for a close-up, a penultimate scene in a movie. So someone is doing my makeup. I find it ironic! AM:You were joking that you’re never great on the first take, which is not true, you’re excellent on the first take, but my question became what do you think your best take is? What is the number you like to go to generally?

AA: Generally I like four takes. One feels like rehearsal, and then two is to make the adjustments, three to get it perfect, or whatever that means, and then four to know that take three was the take. I have to do a bad take to know that we have it.If I end on a good take, I’ll always wonder if I could have done it better. If I then do a take after that and go that wasn’t actually as good, let’s walk away. It’s almost like I have to end on a take that wasn’t as good.

AM: I agree. The only thing I would add, from working with you on two movies, four takes is perfect for the as-written script, but then I like to do a fifth that’s the take where we don’t do the script, where you are allowed to change things, kind of the throwaway take and sometimes that leads to a sixth take.

AA: Absolutely. I would totally agree that when you are working in an improvisational manner, more takes actually become fun and exploratory. And it sometimes leads to more takes because you discover something. And that’s always fun, I like doing that.

AM: I’ve heard stories of some directors doing forty takes, sixty takes, 120 takes. AA: That sounds like a nervous breakdown to me.

AM: Ha, a nightmare, right? I couldn’t even imagine.

AA:They’re very good directors, and I think the actors in their movies are always very good. There must be something to it but I think I would have to walk. It would be bad. I’m on something now and we’ve done scenes where there are a lot of takes.

AM:What’s a lot?

AA: I think the most is around twenty-four.

AM: That’s a lot. I mean I can say this out loud because he is clearly one of the best directors working, so I don’t think he is going to take offense, but I’ve heard Fincher will occasionally do sixty or seventy takes.

AA: I’ve heard that too. It would be a curious experiment.

AM:Ha,I am going to do it to you the next time we work together and not say a word about it, just 100 takes and keep saying one more.

AA:You know what’s interesting about Jean- Marc Vallée, he doesn’t do a lot of takes of individual camera shots but he does the same scene from beginning to end. He doesn’t do pick-ups, he doesn’t say now from this point. So let’s say you’re shooting a nine-page scene, you’ll do that scene all day long.Which is like the equivalent of doing 100 takes.

AM: Oh my god.

AA:Yeah, that has its own interesting thing. And sometimes you’ll just do two takes. Like in Sharp Objects, the scene where I call my boss — have you seen the show?

AM: We’re in post on Vice, the movie with you playing Lynne Cheney, so I have a long list of things I need to catch up, but I saw the first episode which blew me away and you were incredible in it. I have it all queued up and ready to go as soon as I’m done with this movie.

AA: Got it. I’ve seen all of Succession and I love it desperately.

AM: Oh you just threw that in my face.

AA: Ha, perfect, I’m glad it worked. No, I was trying to compliment you!

AM: Will Ferrell told me he did a Woody Allen film nine years ago, and there is a whole different set of baggage to that

sentence which I won’t get into for this, but basically he said that Woody Allen does two takes, three takes, and it went like that for days.And all of a sudden him and Carell were in a scene and there were forty-two takes. And Will kept saying,“Is something wrong?” And Allen was like no let’s just do another one. They kept asking for notes and Allen didn’t give them any.Then it went right back to two takes, two takes. Then a week later he was told they’re reshooting the scene they did forty-two takes of, and went and did thirty-eight takes of that, but never without any explanation at all.

AA: That’s so fascinating. Everyone has a process I suppose.

AM: I’ve love the neutral, non-judgmental square you landed on with that one. Everyone has their process, translation: that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.

AA: Ha, well if anyone met me on the set of Vice, they would think I was out of my mind.

AM: Oh yeah.You know, I saw you were a producer on Sharp Objects.

AA: I was.

AM: Have you produced before?

AA: I haven’t. That was the first one but I want to do more of it. I really, really like it.

AM: So tell me about that as there are ten different things producing can mean.There’s budget, line by line producing, there’s the creative oversight, acquiring the property. Were you involved in the early days, with casting?

AA:Yeah, I brought on Jean-Marc Vallée. We had been working on a Janis Joplin project together and it wasn’t moving forward. But we had this long relationship over the course of a year working on this project and I really felt he understood the complexities of female depression, the complex nature of women. So I brought him to the table and then I really loved being a part of casting, because I like reading with people and that was really helpful as well.

AM: The casting on Succession, I really enjoyed being in on that, especially with a series, and I know yours was a limited series. It’s so cool that you get to help set that world. What else were you going to say, what other parts?

AA: It was really exhausting playing the role of Camille as well as producing, but I loved the day to day — working out problems on set and figuring out the most effective way to do things. It hit all my controlling buttons in the right place. Sometimes as an actor you can feel quite out of control. It was lovely to have a voice and agency in making the day better for people.

AM: So were you actually involved in making the day, the scheduling? All the,“Hey we’re two hours over and I’m worried about tomorrow” kind of stuff?

AA: I do that even when I’m not a producer, which is obviously aggravating for people! I think it is the side effect of me being a mum, I always look for the most efficient way to do something and I’m very practical. I’m not an idealist at all. I think about what the ideal thing would be and I take the practical approach to get as close as possible but I know we are not going to hit that ideal.

AM: I also think you have a great ability to be practical, but you definitely, and I don’t know if this is the case for everything you do, but you always keep a light sense of humour. I never see you get caught in the vortex of stress. Is that the way you are on most projects you work on?

AA: I think my true nature is to be calm but sometimes I do get caught in a vortex. Although never with you and not on your sets.Your sets have a very different way about them. Once or twice I’ve let stress get the better of me but I’m not a tantrum thrower or anything like that.

AM: I don’t think stress is helpful either, it is nice to have a clear head to do your best creative work but all of us get caught in those moments.What’s the last time you remember getting ridiculously stressed about something? Was it big, small, medium?

AA: Two days ago. We were doing a stunt. I just sound like a mother. Thinking maybe we’re being a little over ambitious. It’s always an upward voice thing. Like: “I think maybe I’ve reached the limits of my ability and if I could have 10 minutes to think about how to do this, that would be super!” But I have a powder keg temper.You don’t know it is coming until it explodes. And then people think I am kidding because most of the time I’m really ‘light’.I have a very long fuse until that last inch and then it the fuse goes so fast. I feel so bad if I ever explode and have a great amount of shame and guilt over not being able to control it.That’s what I like about being a producer – you can be a part of setting a tone.

AM: I was definitely a below average actor back in the Nineties in Chicago, but one of the things I loved about it, and I was doing improvisation and occasionally scripted stuff, was it was a great way to let go of that shame of stress and those other feelings.You can be in scenes and you can yell and there was this incredible release to it. It’s the same with writing to some degree but not as much. Have you ever played a role with a certain kind of emotional kick? How do you feel about it? Was it scary, was it a release, did you notice changes in your regular life?

AA: I think it depends. In playing Camille in Sharp Objects I think that was the first time I’ve ever explored my own sadness on a very deep level. I’ve done it in pieces in film but never those depths inside of a character – the depression and sadness. To feel that vulnerable was really scary. But then I loved playing someone like Lynne who I don’t have a lot in common with but I know her. There was freedom in that as well because I could navigate the world of Lynne and she is someone who speaks her mind and isn’t afraid of not being liked.That was freeing because I’m so afraid of people not liking what I have to say.

AM: I noticed with Lynne Cheney, some similarities with you and her; you’ve told me you were quite independent as a child, that you had a lot of siblings and that at a pretty young age you were a part of caring for the house.Tell me about that.

AA: Yes. I am one of seven.We were what I call ‘free-range’ children, that’s how I think of it now.We all had a lot of responsibility to help raise each other – we had chores, and we made meals and we talked a little about that. As early as seven, I was helping to care for the family.We all did it together. But that’s something my mum had.And Lynne Cheney, the way that I play her, is sort of a mix of Lynne and my grandmother, who recently passed away so I can say that, which is horrible.

AM: Oh I’m sorry about that.

AA: She had been ill for some time. She was a really tough woman. She had a job, back when her friends weren’t working. She reminds me a lot of Lynne Cheney. She had a lot of ambition for herself and her family and was not ashamed of it.

AM: It’s really remarkable when you think about that era to be a woman like that. Lynne Cheney definitely has that. I’m sure there are many things about her that people would disagree with, about opinions and the choices she’s made but I noticed, especially when you played her, there was definitely that independent spirit. I didn’t remember you saying that was from your grandmother but I could tell you were really comfortable.

AA: I don’t know if I ever told you. But I knew her, that’s for sure.There was something in the way that Lynne talks and the way she approaches people unapologetically, that I really love and really envy. Because I am an apologiser. Have you ever seen that character Gilly that Kristen Wiig does? AM:Yes.

AA: Darren started sending me that gif because I apologise all the time. Sorry guys, sorry. It was great to dive into a character like Lynne who is really unapologetic, in a wonderful way.

AM: I agree.There is something odd about Lynne Cheney, in some ways she was an early feminist, she was determined to find her own road.

AA: I don’t think she would like that.

AM: She would not like that! But she was.

AA:Yeah, I’m going to agree with that. I’m going to have to send Lynne Cheney a fruit basket. AM: Ha, please do that.

AA:A gift certificate to Omaha Steaks, which by the way I like.

AM: Have you ever had Lobel’s Steaks?

AA: No.

AM: It’s a mail order steakhouse and they are insanely good. Nothing against Omaha Steaks! AA:We don’t have to include any of this!

AA: Ha. I’m a little distracted, I’m getting touched up for a close-up in a penultimate scene for a movie right now.

AM: You’re what?! Right now? I’m impressed with your focus, that we can chat while you’re doing that.

AA: I feel like I have a handle on it because we did the other actor’s close up first and I understand what the scene requires. So it is distracting, I’m definitely someone who will go over a scene a thousand times while I’m sitting here and then be exhausted when I get to set, so this is good.

AM: If you were on a desert island and you could only bring one thing with you – but it has to be a useless object, it can’t be something that plays music, it can’t be something of medical use or travel – what would you bring?

AA: Can it be a baby blanket?

AM:Yes.

AA:Then that is what I would bring.

AM:You still have a blanket from when you were a baby?

AA: It is a long story. I had the baby blanket. When I was twenty-one and travelling, I had it with me and a housekeeper took it away or threw it with the sheets and I lost it. Then when I was too old to need a comfort blanket, my sister had this blanket and I was like oh my gosh, this is an adult size of my baby blanket and she said that I could have it. So now I take it everywhere with me. I have it on planes. It is a little embarrassing but I’ve stopped caring.

AM: By the way, don’t be embarrassed, and you are never too old for a comfort blanket. You are allowed to have a comfort blanket, Amy!

AA: I’ve never talked about that before, you got it out of me!

AM: I like that a lot! My oldest daughter Lily lost her favourite stuffed animal, a polar bear, when she was six years old and I just went and bought her another one that was just bigger and similar and it was amazing. It worked pretty well. She still has it to this day, she is now eighteen years old. It is her childhood, the stuffed animal. It is the emotional space it fills, not the actual object. So I’m glad you have that blanket. Alright, last question. I know for a fact that you are an elite karaoke-er – what do you call someone who does karaoke?

AA: A nerd!

AM:Yes! But I know because on set for Vice you routinely came around, half in character as Lynne Cheney, and gave us classic renditions from the Seventies, sometimes the Eighties, and your repertoire was breathtaking. Without exaggeration, I must have heard you do fifty or sixty different songs, almost in their entirety, as Lynne Cheney. What is your go-to karaoke song? You have one night and then you have to go away to a country that doesn’t have karaoke for five years so it is your last karaoke song – what do you choose?

AA: ‘Alone’ by Heart. Any day. It’s got everything.

AM: I’m sorry to do it to you, but please, would you sing some?

AA: How about this, I’ll make a deal with you. I am going to karaoke tomorrow night. I kid you not, I have reservations. I will record me singing alone and I will send it to you.

AM:You have to! You absolutely have to.

AA: I will. But you realise, I am solidified as the least cool person in Hollywood with my wubi [blanket] and my karaoke.

AM: Ha, all right Amy have a great rest of your shoot, always a pleasure talking to you. Hope to see you soon.

AA:Yes, I’ll see you soon.Thanks.

Photographer: Boe Marion @ New Blood Agency; Photographer’s Assistants: Dean Dodos & Jesse Gouveia; Creative Direction: JamesWright; Set Design: IsaiahWeiss; Fashion Director:Liz McClean @Walter Schupfer; Stylist:Petra Flannery; Stylist’sAssistants; Kimberly Nguyen & Emily Sanchez; Makeup: Hung Vanngo @TheWall Group; Hair:Christopher Naselli @TheWall Group;Manicure:Jin Soon Choi; Executive Producer:Johnny Pascucci @ Photobomb; Producer:KevinWarner;ProductionAssistants:Adrian Manzanares & Grayson Ginner.