‘Nightbitch’ featurette: Amy Adams and Marielle Heller on their genre-defying movie about motherhood (exclusive)
In the skewed world of Nightbitch, Amy Adams is stuck in a prison of her own creation… and she’s pretty sure she’s turning into a dog.
“Nightbitch is really hard to define by a genre or by a single sentence or definition,” Adams explains in this Gold Derby exclusive featurette (watch below). “There’s so much that goes into this. Isolation, transformation, community, rage, motherhood, parenthood, sexuality.”
Adams is also a producer on Searchlight Pictures’ film based on Rachel Yoder‘s novel about the reality-distorting affects of motherhood. “One of the reasons I love being a producer is to get to put a team together that everybody feels excited about,” she states. “From there, it was really about finding a filmmaker we think would have an interesting point of view. Of course, my first choice was Marielle Heller.”
Heller was drawn to Yoder’s book because of the voice of the main character, who is simply called Mother. “She’s so funny, she’s so irreverent,” Heller says. “The book just spoke to me. I was like, ‘This is finally an honest reflection of my life.’ I felt like I knew how I would make it into a movie.”
One of the director’s favorite scenes shows Mother eating meatloaf in a store like a dog. Heller says she didn’t have to push Adams to go full-on. “She just went there and it was a delight to watch.”
“We’re dealing with themes that are so human,” Adams adds. “There are times where we’ve all felt completely isolated or invisible. We’re going through transformation, and it’s challenging.” Heller notes, “It’s just a life changing experience to become a parent. You look around at the world going, ‘Oh my God. Does everybody else feel like this?’ This is a really relatable experience and hopefully people can understand what this period of life is like.”
Adams was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in Nightbitch, which is now streaming on Hulu.