Amy Lou Adams (born
August 20,
1974) is an
American actress. She is best known for playing characters with cheerful and sunny dispositions such as her
Academy Award-nominated role as Ashley Johnsten in
Junebug and her
Golden Globe Award-nominated role as Giselle in
Enchanted.
Early life
Amy Adams was born in
Aviano,
Italy, but grew up in
Vicenza,
Italy,
the daughter of American parents Kathryn and Richard Adams, who was a U.S. serviceman stationed in Italy. She grew up as one of seven children in
Castle Rock,
Colorado and was raised in the
Mormon religion, although her family left the church after Adams' parents divorced when she was 11 years old.
Throughout her years at
Douglas County High School, she sang in the school choir and trained as an apprentice at a local dance company with ambitions of becoming a ballerina.
However, after graduating from high school, she decided that she was "never going to be that good
[[ballet]], no matter how hard
[1] work
[2]" and entered musical theater, which she found was "much better suited to
[3] personality".
Career
Early career
To support herself while performing in community theater, Adams worked at
Gap as a greeter and at
Hooters as a hostess and a waitress, a fact that became her "entire press career for a while".
She began working professionally as a dancer at
Boulder's Dinner Theatre and Country Dinner Playhouse, where she was spotted by a Minneapolis dinner theatre director, Michael Brindisi. Along with her family, Adams moved to
Chanhassen, Minnesota, where she continued to work at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. While she was off work nursing a pulled muscle, Adams auditioned for the satirical 1999 comedy
Drop Dead Gorgeous, which was being filmed in Minnesota, and was cast in her first film role. Persuaded by her
Drop Dead Gorgeous co-star,
Kirstie Alley, Adams moved to
Los Angeles, California in 1998.
Shortly after, she was cast in
Fox Network's television series spin-off of
Cruel Intentions,
Manchester Prep, in the role of Kathryn Merteuil. The series did not live up to the network's expectations and following numerous script revisions and two production shutdowns, it was canceled.
The filmed episodes were then re-edited to be released as the direct-to-video film,
Cruel Intentions 2.
