Photo: Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Spoilers for 2018’s Sharp Objects follow.
For many actors, getting into character isn’t as big of a problem as getting out of one. Amy Adams still gets triggered by that last big twist at the end Sharp Objects. Speaking to Julia Cunningham on her eponymous podcast, Adams says the moment when Cecile realizes her half-sister is the serial killer (while her mom was a plain ol’ one-off manslaughterer) still gives her the shivers. “That character was one of the hardest ones to sort of get out of my system,” she said, “so if you bring up any moments, I can sort of feel it in my body where it lives.”
Adams said shooting the scene was painful, but thankfully the late Jean-Marc Vallée knew what he wanted and got in in minimal takes. “Eliza who played Amma, she was just so wonderful and so scary,” she said. “We didn’t do it too many times, but that was I don’t know why that specific moment just, it lives in my body in a devastating way. A lot of Sharp Objects does, strangely. I mean, I think it’s because that character speaks to this darkness that I had to tap into as like a shadow self that I don’t like to visit very often, you know?” No one ever gets stuck inhabiting any of their fun characters, and that’s a real shame. Austin Butler’s Elvis voice notwithstanding, mamma.
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