Family drew Adams, Close to ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
Actors say women’s stories, not awards, appealed to them
GlennClose’s turn as the ornery, larger-than-life and fiercely loyal grandmother Mamawin “Hillbilly Elegy” wasn’t even fully unleashed into theworld before it tookonalifeof itsown. A friend ofClose’s daughter, the actor Annie Starke, dressed up asMamawfor Halloween. This friend, it should be noted, was a man, who donned a curly wig, big glasses, an oversizeT-shirt and a dangling, lit cigarette— a costume pick not all that surprising since the Guardian already crownedMamawa style icon.
“Iwas so chuffed by that,” Close says, smiling. Meanwhile over Zoom, AmyAdams, whoplays Mamaw’s drug-addicted, unstable daughterBev in “Hillbilly Elegy,” now streaming onNetflix, can’t stop laughing atMamaw’s unlikely ascent to sartorial stardom.
“HillbillyElegy” is based on J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir, which detailed hisRust Belt upbringing and drewboth praise and criticism for its cultural musings about the causes of white poverty. Themovie, directed byRonHoward, mostly steers clear of the author’s conservative politics, concentrating on the family’s story andVance’s escape fromthe destructive behavioral patterns that, he believes, mire poor people in hopelessness.
The actors say itwas the book’s vivid portraits ofwomenstrugglingwith dire circumstances and personal demons that appealed to them.
Some may call it obvious awards bait, and point to the fact thatAdams, with sixOscar nominations, and Close, with seven, enjoy rarefied status amongthe most nominated actresses ever to not actuallywin AcademyAwards. Surely theymustmake every career decision based solely on what could bring that trophy home, right?
But talking toAdams and
Close, together and separately, it’s easy to feel their connection to the material’s domestic side. Their own families, particularly their daughters, are central to their lives.
Adams’ daughter, Aviana, 10, figures intowhy she was interested in “Hillbilly Elegy” in the first place.
“Examining generational trauma and howwe pass things down fromone generation to the next is something I’m interested in — and something I’m trying not to do tomy daughter,” Adams says. “It’s really about awareness tome.”
Asked what things about herself that she doesn’t want her daughter to inherit, Adams launches into a cheerful dissection of the differences between worry and pragmatism. She’d likeAvi to be rational, but not over-evaluate every situation. Adams says she spends a lot of time on the “treadmill ofmymind, getting nowhere.”
Close andAdams had never talked outside of brief conversations at awards shows. “Wewere red carpet buddies,” Adams says, noting all the times they bumped into each other a couple of years ago when Close earned an Oscar nomination for “TheWife” andAdams for portrayingLynne Cheney in “Vice.”
Adams surprises Close whenshe reveals that she first sawher in “The WorldAccording to Garp,” the 1982 adaptation of John Irving’s bittersweet bestseller in which Close playedGarp’s strongwilled, feminist mother.
Adams is more circumspect when talking about herwork in “Hillbilly Elegy” and howshe found away into portraying Vance’smom, Bev, whose abuses and addictions fuelmuchof themovie’s drama. Adams and Close met Bev and other relatives in Middletown, Ohio, whereVance’s family moved fromKentucky’s Appalachia region. DirectorHowardwas there too, and he remembersAdams repeating “these things ring abell” as shetalkedwith people.
“Amy’s private, and I didn’t press her because actors and their secrets are a powerful thing,” Howard says.
“Andwhywould I releasemy superpower?” Adams says, when hearing Howard’s observation. “I’m very cautious about what I share because a lot of what I pull fromdoesn’t belong tome. I don’twant to tell someone else’s story to furthermy own narrative.”
To play the force of nature thatwasMamaw, a quick-temperedwoman wholit her husband on fire and also raisedVance, offering stability absent in his ownhome, Close watched homemovies and spoke extensivelywith Vance. Howard says they dialed the character back, though reviewers, who havenot beenkindto the movie, might disagree.
“Mamawmade a lot of mistakes, and I think she realized that, but without her, J.D. would not have broken that cycle,” Close says.
Mamawwas also the source of a bounty of homespun wisdom. She also apparently had a fondness for “Terminator2:
JudgmentDay,” and tells the youngVance in the movie: “Everyone in this world is one of three kinds — goodTerminator, a bad Terminator and neutral.”
So, going by “Terminator 2,” Arnold Schwarzenegger would be the goodTerminator andRobert Patrick’s T-1000 the badTerminator. But a neutralTerminator? I’ve seen sixTerminator movies, and I don’t remember an indifferentTerminator. What gives?
“Weall live inagrayarea, and that’s wherewe have to deal with life,” Close muses. “Somaybe the neutral wouldmean awillingness to take life as it comes. It’s not all good. And it’s not all bad. It’s in the middle.”
“Iwas just talkingwith my daughter about that,” Adams says, “about living in themiddle, about how not everything’s good, not everything’s bad and people aren’t all good or all bad, for the most part. I havemy opinions about a few peoplewe don’t need to talk about. Butmost of life happens in the middle ... and those are the parts that you’ll remember.”