Amy Adams explained why she trusted Denis Villeneuve so much while working on Arrival. Adams plays Linguistics professor Louise Banks, who is tasked with communicating with mysterious aliens who arrive on Earth. It is one of Denis Villeneuve’s best movies and was the first science fiction movie that the filmmaker directed. After being released in 2016, Arrival has an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 94%. In addition to Adams, the cast includes Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Reuniting with Villeneuve eight years after the release of Arrival in a video for Vanity Fair, Adams explained why she knew she could trust him while filming the sci-fi movie. Adams talked about how respectful Villeneuve is to actors while also being completely honest with them. She recalled a funny story of her rambling to him about a problem on the set of Arrival, after which Villeneuve admitted that he didn’t understand a word she had said. Read Adams’ full quote below:

This is why everybody loves working with you, because you have so much reverence and respect for actors and it’s just lovely to work with, you really do. You are very honest. That’s one of the things I talked about when I first met you that struck me. I tell this story on set because it’s when I knew I trusted you. I was having trouble with a moment in a scene and I came up to you with all of my angst, and I’m in the little orange suit with my hood off walking next to you, talking at what must have been a mile a minute, ’cause, like, I had a problem and a question. I was working it out in my head and I was talking, and I was doing this and this, but then this and this. And I stopped and I looked at you and you go, ‘To be honest, I don’t understand anything you’ve said.’ And I said, ‘That’s okay, ’cause I think I’ve just worked it out in my own head.’ And really I think I just needed a sounding board, but the fact that you were just like, ‘I don’t know what she said,’ because I was mumbling and talking so fast. And once you told me that you must have known it’s not what I wanted to hear, but it was what I needed to hear. And it made me also realize, ‘Oh, actually, I already figured it out.’ But I trusted you ’cause I knew you would always tell me the truth, you know?

Amy Adams & Denis Villeneuve Have Only Worked Together On Arrival

Arrival Is One Of Adams’ Best Movies

Before Arrival, Villeneuve was already an accomplished filmmaker, having directed movies like Prisoners and Sicario. However, the quality was still shocking upon its release. The 2016 sci-fi movie is still one of Adams’ best movies, and her character in the film is one of her most interesting roles. While the movie is sci-fi, it is actually a deeply personal story about motherhood, which Adams has also noted that she appreciated so much about the movie.

Adams is completely right in saying that actors love working with Villeneuve, as he has worked with some of the best actors in the world. Villeneuve has remained in the science fiction genre, directing films, such as Blade Runner 2049, Dune: Part One, and this year’s Dune: Part Two, which was one of the most successful movies of the year. Even though he hasn’t reunited with Adams after Arrival, Villeneuve has worked with actors like Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Josh Brolin.

Amy Adams & Denis Villeneuve Should Work Together Again

It is clear that Villeneuve puts immense care into every one of his movies, so it is great to hear how much Adams enjoyed working with him. Arrival truly is a standout movie in both of their careers, and even the director has recently expressed that the actor has been snubbed an Oscar nomination for her performance. By the end of Arrival, viewers were shocked by the story that Villeneuve and his team managed to tell. Therefore, it would be great to see Villeneuve work with Adams again in a future movie after the success of Arrival.

Source: Vanity Fair

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Arrival

Based on Ted Chiang’s short story “Story of Your Life”, Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival follows Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist brought in to establish a line of communication with an alien species that have recently landed on Earth. With the help of physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Banks begins to understand more of the aliens’ communications, and it alters her perception of life forevermore.

Release Date

November 10, 2016

Runtime

116 Minutes

Writers

Eric Heisserer
, Ted Chiang

Budget

$47 million

Studio(s)

FilmNation Entertainment
, 21 Laps Entertainment
, Lava Bear Films

Distributor(s)

Paramount Pictures

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