By Jackie Shannon
“I’m blessed to work with a woman I respect and admire,” Jeremy Renner said of his Arrival co-star, Amy Adams, on the red carpet at the film’s premiere. “She is the main reason that I wanted to be part of this movie. How about Amy Adams for president? I’ll be her VP!”
Well, she might not be America’s first female President (and neither, of course, is Hillary Clinton), but Amy Adams is certainly in power when it comes to Australia’s theatrical releases this week. In a rare turn-up, an actress is right at the forefront of two of the major films out in a single week, with Adams taking the lead in Denis Villeneuve’s thoughtful, meditative alien invasion drama, Arrival, and Tom Ford’s dark, complex thriller, Nocturnal Animals.
Is it just a coincidence, or part of a greater push towards creating better roles for actresses, and then filling those roles with performers who can make them even better? We’d pick the latter. And while the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger used to fight it out at the box office, it’s refreshing to see two films led by actresses going head to head…even if it is the same actress. “I’d love to have some time to get to slow down and reflect on things,” Amy Adams told FilmInk in 2009. “Whenever I have something to do, I just put my head down and do it. I really haven’t looked up. I need to take time to look up and see what my life is right now.”
It’s looking pretty good to us…
Arrival and Nocturnal Animals are both in cinemas now.
