Amy Adams names her favourite sci-fi movies: “It seems like there’s a theme”
Amy Adams knows a thing or two about sci-fi. She had a supporting role in Her, a movie about a man who falls in love with an AI, has appeared as Lois Lane in several DC movies (if you want to count those as sci-fi), and, most notably, gave a stunning performance as a linguist attempt to interpret an alien language in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival.
The film was a massive success, drawing the world’s attention to Villeneuve and his mastery of sci-fi filmmaking, which in turn spawned Blade Runner 2049 and the Dune franchise. For Adams personally, her subtle yet powerful portrayal of a very human woman dealing with a very non-human problem won her much praise. Award nominations flooded in, and the Enchanted actor had secured her status as a cult sci-fi hero.
While promoting the movie, Adams revealed the one science fiction movie that shaped her belief about life beyond the stars. “I changed my attitude to aliens after I saw E.T!” she told Film Ink. “I believe that aliens are here for helping us!” She probably has another reason for loving the classic tale of boy-meets-alien, as it was Stephen Spielberg who gave Adams her first big break when she was cast in his movie Catch Me If You Can.
“I loved Starman too,” Adams continued. “I had a crush on an alien because he was cute.” Starman is a little-known sci-fi romance movie by John Carpenter, director of much scarier fare like The Thing and Halloween. It’s about an alien who comes to Earth after finding the gold record aboard the Voyager 2 probe. He takes the form of a human (Jeff Bridges) and ends up forming a relationship with a young widow (Karen Allen).
Adams also named Superman as another favourite alien tale. This must have created quite the full-circle moment when she first took on the role of his love interest in 2013’s Man of Steel. As she was born in 1974, Adams would have grown up with the Richard Donner/Richard Lester Superman films starring Christopher Reeve as the man in the red cape. The actor summarised her feelings on sci-fi as a whole with a simple statement – “It seems like there’s a theme – I heart aliens.”
However, it wasn’t the thought of little green or massive spaceships that occupied her brain most while she was making Arrival. “I was definitely concerned about communication, and I was concerned about making a move before you truly understand what you’re asking,” she said of the film, a central theme of which is faith in the unknown.
Adding, “You have to understand the other person before you can judge their statement or judge an action. The thing that I really keyed into was the idea of choice, and about time, and about love. That’s what grounded me and tied me to this film. Even more so than when we filmed it last year, and it’s crazy to think about everything that’s happened in the year since, the film depicts this utopia, and it shows the unity that we all fantasise about, but it’s hard to imagine that happening.”
Arrival is a fantastic film, and Adams does an amazing job in it. This sort of performance could only come from someone who understands what the genre is all about – using larger-than-life concepts to explore very small, very real feelings.
