Novelist who, like her heroines, had a second chance
Henrietta Twycross-Martin Wed 14 Aug 2002 17.35 BST
Winifred Watson, who has died at the age of 95, wrote six well-reviewed novels in the 1930s and early 1940s, and was then forgotten until she came to renewed fame 18 months ago with the republication of Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, a comic fantasy about a middle-aged governess unexpectedly encountering - and approving of - the louche London world of nightclubs, cocktails and casual sex.
Amy Adams can, and does, play anything, with a depth and range epitomized by her roles in two new movies: her sultry, foulmouthed con artist in American Hustle and her kindhearted documentary-film maker in Her. If there’s a throughline to her life, on-screen and off, it’s musical theater. In Santa Monica, Nell Scovell gets Adams talking, and singing, about her mustached co-stars, the many identities she’s assumed, and who she really wants to be.
BY NELL SCOVELL
“When things are out of control, I’ll sing the ‘Golden Helmet’ song, from Man of La Mancha,” she revealed during a recent interview in Santa Monica. “I’ll just go … [sings] I can hear the cuckoo singing in the cuckooberry tree … And everyone in my life knows that means the situation is spiraling.”
Amy Adams, photographed at the Chateau Marmont, in West Hollywood
She still feels empowered by Wicked (who doesn’t?). She starts sobbing at “The Wizard and I” and keeps it going through “Defying Gravity.” The opening of Act II gets her, too. “You know that song … [sings] There’s a couple of things get lost / There are bridges you cross / You didn’t know you crossed / Until you crossssssssed … ” She catches herself. “I love that line. And I’m singing it for you, so now you know I’m a full nerd.”
Born in 1974 in Italy, actress Amy Adams has come a long way in her career. What many people don’t know is that Adams was raised in a Mormon family with six siblings.
Fame didn’t come overnight for Amy; she always dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but ironically, a pulled muscle led her to her first film audition. Would you believe that before this actress made the big time, she worked as a Sales Associate at Gap and as a Waitress at Hooters?
