What Makes Amy Adams Such A Great Actress, According To Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep and Amy Adams

There is little more meaningful for an artist than recognition from one's peers. When that recognition comes from an actress that is generally considered to be one of the best ever, it is all the more meaningful. Justice League's Amy Adams finds herself on the receiving end of such praise. Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep expressed what she believes makes Amy Adams such a great actress. For Meryl Streep, maintaining who you are as a person despite inhabiting characters is the most challenging aspect of showbiz, and the part that Amy Adams handles so well.

Amy has cannily managed this better than most, partly because of her unflagging, good-natured work ethic, but mostly because of a level-headed, uninflated sense of herself, her priorities and what is real and what is bullshit. She has a geiger counter of a bullshit meter, and for such a polite person is not afraid to hold it up to the bloated face of this business and let us all hear the ticking as loud as she does. She won't perform what is not real, and she won't say what is not true.

Meryl Streep's praise is not just of Amy Adams the actress, but also as a person. And for Streep, those two go hand in hand. In an industry where scandal rules the day and fame and fortune can have a corrupting effect, Amy Adams stays humble and works hard. This indicates Amy Adams is a person of conviction, and isn't caught up in all the artifice and superficiality of Hollywood. While being a good person might seem like a given, we are finding out daily, it is not. Meryl Streep's words in a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter also speak to Amy's consideration for those around her-- the kind of thing that you don't always hear about movie stars. The column makes clear the respect Amy Adams' integrity and bullshit detector have won her.

Amy Adams is indeed, a great actress. While she has not yet won an Academy Award, she has been nominated five times. If her performances continue and she maintains this level of respect from her peers, it is only a matter of time. The two acclaimed actresses have actually shared the screen twice before. In 2008's Doubt and 2009's Julie & Julia.

Amy Adams can next be seen as recently widowed (soon to likely be unwidowed) Lois Lane in the DC team-up Justice League on November 17th, and the early reactions to the film have hit. Meryl Streep next stars in Steven Spielberg's latest, the most Oscar-friendly of Oscar-friendly films, The Post on December 22nd, which just dropped its first trailer.

Nick Evans

Nick grew up in Maryland has degrees in Film Studies and Communications. His life goal is to walk the earth, meet people and get into adventures. He’s also still looking for The Adventures of Pete and Pete season 3 on DVD if anyone has a lead.