Amy Adams Says She Loved Acting Like a Dog inNightbitch: 'Zero F--s to Give' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’.Photo:Amy Sussman/Getty; Searchlight Pictures

Amy Sussman/Getty; Searchlight Pictures

Amy Adamsgoes proudly, fully feral in her latest film. And she still grins at the memory.

“I was here for it,” Adams tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue of her character inNightbitch, who seemingly turns into an actual dog as a coping mechanism while grappling with the weight and isolation of new motherhood.

The film finds an unraveling Adams sprouting a tail, howling at the night moon and enthusiastically eating from a dog bowl, to the delight of her young son and growing concern of her husband (Scoot McNairy).

“I love that stuff,” says the actress, 50. “And it was fun to be in this woman’s shoes because in these moments, she’s, pardon my language, but she’s gotten to a point where she has zero f—s to give."

Frankly, Adams found the wild abandon freeing. “She gets to this point where it’s just like she’s just free from other people’s opinions about her. Everything she’s doing is instinctive and immediate in those moments where she’s kind of tuned into her ferocity. It was fun.”

Amy Adams leans into her feral instincts in ‘Nightbitch’.Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

On set, Adams was all in, saysNightbitchdirector Marielle Heller, who previously directed Tom Hanks in 2019’sA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

A canine-mimicking Adams was so convincing that in one scene the dogs on-set “flipped out,” recalls Heller. “They all got up and started lunging toward her and she just went down and covered her head with her hands. It was really a moment of like, ‘Oh my God, we might’ve just lost the whole thing,' because it got scary for a moment.”

But Adams — a dog person at heart who has three at home — remained “a pro,” says the director, hitting the deck and covering her head in her hands before going back to try the scene again after the filmmaking team had reworked it. “She spooked the dogs [but] the dogs didn’t scare her.”

Amy Adams at a ‘Nightbitch’ photocall on Oct. 25.VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

After making her film debut inDrop Dead Gorgeous25 years ago, the Colorado native has built one of the most respected careers in Hollywood, earning six Oscar nominations in a career that has spanned playing a suspicious nun in 2008’sDoubtopposite Meryl Streep to a linguist interacting with alien life in 2016’sThe Arrival.

But the character she plays in her bold new film has stayed with her, especially when it comes to battling what she calls “unrealistic expectations” as a working mother.

“I think that journey of really tapping into self and tapping into the ferocity of your feelings and the ferocity of your love for your child and being unapologetic about that, that’s like a wonderful place to get to live,” says Adams, who is mom to daughter Aviana, 14, with husband Darren Le Gallo.

Amy Adams and husband Darren Le Gallo at the 2019 Oscars.Steve Granitz/WireImage

Adams has simultaneously found a sense of freedom in this decade of her life following a recent milestone birthday.

“I turned 50 this year and in sort of the march up to [it], I was like, “I am not going to judge myself anymore. I am going to be accepting,” the star says, noting howNightbitchreflects an “open” era of her career.

“I think I’m really open,” says the actress. “I’m in a place of really looking for new experiences.”

For more of Amy Adams’s interview, pick up this week’s issue ofPEOPLEon newsstands Friday.

source: people.com