Amy Adams explores the transformative experience of motherhood in the new film Nightbitch as an artist turned stay-at-home mom who starts developing some canine-like abilities as she struggles to regain her sense of self.

The actress, who also produced the film, was initially drawn to the magical realism of the source material — the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder.

“One of the things that really spoke to me was Rachel’s unique perspective,” Adams tells ABC Audio. “And not only that it was a tale of a woman who we call Mother, but of a relationship, of parenthood, of community. It just had so many themes that are very valuable to me in exploring.”

The themes also resonated with director Marielle Heller, who wrote the screenplay shortly after giving birth to her second child — a process she calls cathartic. “I was working out the exact things that were happening in my day into the script,” she says.

As for teaming up with Adams, Heller says, “I loved how much she trusted me and just went with the process and was willing to be vulnerable and really intimate. And let me just get right up in her face and film all aspects of her.”

That includes the scenes where Adams had to literally act like a dog — from barking to shoving her face into a meatloaf. She says she relished sinking her teeth, so to speak, into the animalistic parts of the role.

“There was definitely a lot of conversations, a lot of running ‘barks’ by Marielle to make sure I was the right tone for the size of dog that would be playing me, and working on the physicality,” she says. “But a lot of it was just so much fun to just sort of unleash that side of myself that is so grounded in play.” 

Nightbitch hits select theaters Friday, Dec. 6.

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