Amy Adams is a screen icon who is beloved for her immense talent onscreen and her kind persona in real life – but something that’s become a major part of her image is the fact that, even though she has played so many amazing roles (and is even seen by many as one of the great actors of her generation) she’s won zero Oscars. Of course, awards aren’t everything – and the fact that she hasn’t won doesn’t erase her great body of work – but it does make one wonder: is it that wholesome persona that everyone loves so much that’s actually kept her from cinching a win? She has the talent and the drive, but is her lack of ego what’s stopped her from walking away with her industry’s highest honor? In an interesting way, Amy’s struggle mirrors the career frustrations of many talented women. So let’s take a deeper look at what’s really going on…

Becoming America’s Sweetheart

Amy Adams’ path to stardom wasn’t an easy one – the actress’s early career was peppered with bit parts and failed auditions, to the point where she even considered giving up acting altogether.

“I wasn’t good at it! This is why it didn’t work until I was 30!”

Amy’s humble beginnings add a layer of relatability that help connect her to her audience – she started her career as a dancer in a Denver, Colorado, dinner theater, and worked at Gap and Hooters. She was 27 when she won her breakthrough role, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, but she didn’t work for a full year afterwards.

“Steven Spielberg expected you to break out after Catch Me If You Can… were you disappointed when you didn’t?” “Yeah.”]

Then, at 30, Amy was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Ashley in the independent film Junebug – and her stratospheric rise began

As a young actress, she was flatly cast as either bubbly or bitchy: her first mainstream movie appearance was playing a ditzy pregnant cheerleader in Drop Dead Gorgeous, as young Kathryn in Cruel Intentions 2 she was a cartoonish villain, and as rich girl Kat Peterson in That 70s Show she was both… but still pretty two-dimensional. But it was a role she took on in 2005 that began to change things. Amy has said that before her real breakthrough role, as young, Southern homebody Ashley in Junebug, she didn’t have a lot of confidence.

The character of Ashley was so gentle and refreshing, these traits went on to essentially become an emblem of Amy’s ability as an actress – and she carried the sweet openness of Ashley forward into many of her roles. This quintessentially sweet character is easy to love, as well as being someone we feel we know. On its release, Roger Ebert wrote in his review, ‘Junebug is a movie that understands, profoundly and with love and sadness, the world of small towns.’ A huge percentage of the film’s love and sadness is present in Adams’ performance as a young woman in a complicated marriage who gives birth to a stillborn son. It not only cemented Adams’ position as an actress, but as an American sweetheart. She brought warmth and humanity to a character who, as Ebert said, would have been played as a ‘provincial hick’ by someone else.

Amy’s all-American charm has led her to be cast as some of America’s ultimate female characters. She’s portrayed Lois Lane, Amelia Earhart, and even a Disney princess, Giselle in Enchanted. Yet despite her propensity for all-singing, all-dancing roles – those hangovers from her dinner theater past – she’s branched out into serious dramatic work, embodying an extraordinary range of characters due to what’s been called her ‘chameleonic’ acting ability. She’s unafraid to play difficult, unpleasant or even shocking characters. Yet despite her exceptional ability and extraordinary track record, much of the public still only sees her as the sweet and unassuming sweetheart who’s just happy to be there (and thus doesn’t need to be recognized for all of her hard work.) But… why?!

The actress’s actress

Part of what makes Amy able to be such a surprising chameleon of an actress is the fact that she’s maintained her private life so well. She’s very much just an actress – that is to say, she views her profession as a job, like any other, and not an all-consuming lifestyle. While she works extremely hard, her offscreen persona is of a sweet, wholesome woman who is extremely family oriented. She’s predominantly known to us through her roles rather than tabloid drama, awards campaigns or shocking interviews; and when she does give interviews, she upholds the ‘typical mom’ persona that we already know her for. Yet this makes her transformation into so many wildly versatile, complex characters all the more fascinating. Vox called her ‘a national treasure’, claiming that her talent lies in her ability to create characters who can forge strong connections with those around them. In the glimpses we get into Amy’s personal life, we can see that this ‘connection-building’ theory might be an extension of how she moves through the world outside of work. We also see that Amy’s personal relationships and interactions are really relatable, which is a huge part of her appeal, of what draws us to her, both as an actress and an individual. And, in this way, just as it does with the people in our day-to-day life, paying particular attention to Amy as an actress can have an incredible pay off.

How we take her for granted

Perhaps because of Amy’s quiet, unassuming persona, humility, and all-American sweetness, she’s taken for granted by her industry. We see many more outwardly aggressive Hollywood personalities get ahead, while Amy, with her ‘typical mom’ vibes is not sufficiently recognized for the incredible work she does. This is also often the case with moms in other industries (or even in their role at home). Amy has been nominated for six Academy Awards – five for Best Supporting Actress, and a sixth for Best Actress –but she’s never won. And while her fans take to social media periodically to protest, this often seems to go by unnoticed by the larger industry machine when compared with other Hollywood actors in the same position. Take for example Leonardo DiCaprio, who was at the center of a media storm when he received his fifth nomination without a win. Amy of course isn’t alone in this, from Glen Close (who spent her entire decades-long career racking up nominations without wins) to so many amazing actresses of color who don’t even get nominated, much less the opportunity to win, who the major awards shows decide to reward and why has long been a point of contention with audiences.

Far from only being about the Oscars, when we look at other critically acclaimed actresses and their percentage of across-the-board award wins to nominations, there’s something of a pattern. Cate Blanchett and Julianne Moore have both won 46% of the awards they’ve been nominated for, while Meryl Streep has won 50%, as has Natalie Portman. Amy’s former co-star Jennifer Lawrence has won 51%. As of May 2022, Amy has had 136 nominations and 37 wins – just 27%. She’s also been recognised more as a supporting actress, which reinforces the idea that the nice girl doesn’t get leading lady recognition.

There’s an idea of Amy as an everywoman, in that she works so hard, she turns up, she does a better job than a lot of people. But this can perhaps lead to a bit of sitting back and accepting it if she doesn’t get the level of glory her achievements warrant. It’s just a given that she’ll show up and blow everyone away that it’s like the industry has become accustomed to it and thus doesn’t feel the need to reward her in the way it does others who make more of a spectacle of their work.

It’s also interesting how people are quick to comment on Amy’s personality and softness alongside her acting talent. Speaking of her Golden Globe nominated turn in Arrival, director Dennis Villeneuve said ‘she’s not only one of the best actresses alive, she’s also a lovely human being.’ It’s a nice thing to say, and may not seem like a big deal, but it’s something we rarely hear about male actors; people don’t feel the need to comment on their personal demeanor in relation to their acting ability. And what’s more, there are multiple studies that show that for women, being nice at work can get you overlooked. Yoking together Amy’s art with this idea of her as sweet and unassuming can fuel the feeling that she’s always going to be accepting of and happy with whatever she gets.

When Amy has won awards or experienced career highs, she’s so humble, and this humility extends throughout her public appearances. Rather than implying that her acting ability is a special gift, she maintains that anyone could learn how to act as well as her. And she discusses how, when she appeared on Saturday Night Live, she was incredibly nervous because she was surrounded by so much talent.

Amy acknowledges the hard work it takes to make it in Hollywood, and gives credit where it’s due. But in an industry where squeaky wheels get headlines and boasting equals box office, that could get mistaken by some as her denying her own ability. It was widely publicized that she and Jennifer Lawrence were paid less than Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale for their roles in American Hustle – but while Lawrence spoke out, Amy chose not to, because she didn’t want to cause trouble. When she did finally speak about it years later, she said ‘It’s like we [women] have been conditioned to not be controversial, to not cause problems.’ We live amidst a cultural tendency to dismiss ‘nice’ women’s hard work, so it’s telling that Amy’s modesty hasn’t always served her and has at times even possibly been used to undermine the industry perception of her as the serious actress she is.

Conclusion

Amy Adams continues to push the limits of what we expect from an actor – taking on acting roles and producing credits on diverse projects that get to the root of how we experience the world. Amy may be unlikely to mount her own full-on campaign to help her win an awards season, but that lack of ego doesn’t mean she’s not incredibly deserving. But even though she hasn’t won that one coveted award, she has carved out a stellar career for herself where she’s continually played a huge range of interesting, complex characters. And the lack of a little golden statue doesn’t change the fact that her roles themselves will stand the test of time. And that’s what really matters! (...though she really does deserve at least one, like, come on!)