Why the actress will never forgether kiss with Leo
Amy Adams' Lip-Lock With Leonardo DiCaprio
How far from a convent can you get? After her Oscar-nominated performance opposite Meryl Streep in Doubt, Amy Adams is trading in her nun's habit for a blood-spattered apron in Sunshine Cleaning.
From the makers of Little Miss Sunshine, the dark dramedy (co-starring Emily Blunt) gives Adams the leading role as a mom trying to pay for her daughter's schooling by cleaning up gory crime scenes.
Q: Calling this a change of pace hardly does it justice.
A: I know, isn't being an actress wonderful? Actually, it was challenging to play Rose who's a single mom and hasn't really made a lot of her life and doesn't have a very strong sense of self worth. Even when she finally turns things around by starting her cleaning business, she's on her own and feeling very alone. So it was hard to step into that persona every day.
Related: Amy Adams Before She Made It Big
Q: She was a former high school beauty queen. Were you?
A: Never. I didn't even fit in with the sort of cheerleading group. I was off doing ballet. I think some of the kids thought I was a snob. I was very much into performing. My parents encouraged me and my dad would write skits for my brothers and my sisters and me to do.
Q: In Sunshine Cleaning, you're in the middle of some gross and bloody crime scenes. Did they seem real?
A: Let's just say I'd rather be in a convent. It did take a little getting used to. There was one scene where a woman had been killed, that was the hardest. It didn't smell or anything, but I did get the sense of a woman who might have lived there. It didn't feel like make-believe.
Related: Emily Blunt's Life After Prada
Q: We'll also soon see you in Night At the Museum 2 with Ben Stiller, which sounds like a little more fun.
A: It really was. I play Amelia Earhart who comes to life for a night in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. Ben and I are being chased. The bad part was that I was wearing a very tight pair of pants which got ripped up a lot.
Q: Will there be a sequel to Enchanted?
A: I've heard rumblings, but there's nothing on the books as of now. We will see.
Q: You've kissed a long list of sexy leading men from Patrick Dempsey and Lee Pace to Leonardo DiCaprio. Any lasting lip-lock memory?
A: I talk about kissing a lot and I think I have to stop talking about my costars because I'm starting to sound just grossly unprofessional and boy crazy. But there was one moment with Leo.They were setting up the shot and I was just inches from his face, I actually did think once, 'OK, now I'm going to kiss Leonardo DiCaprio.' But it was more than that I really had to go at him and climb on top of him. Steven Spielberg's direction to me was, 'Eat his face like a hamburger.' Steven said, 'You're starving and you're looking at him like a hamburger or maybe an ice cream cone.'
Related: See Exclusive Photos of Leonardo DiCaprio
Q: If you weren't an actress, what would you be doing?
A: I didn't intend on moving to Hollywood. I didn't get the courage to move out here until I was 24. It took me a long time to sort of understand that the world, like New York and L.A., weren't these big scary places. It took me a long time even being here to sort of embrace that I was going to declare I was an actress who was going to pursue a career in film.
Q: So when you get to be the huge star that everyone's expecting you to be, are you going to be just totally obnoxious?
A: Oh, are you kidding? With six brothers and sisters? I would be hogtied before they'd let me get away with any of that. That's a good thing about a big family is people keep you where you should be.