The toughest act in show business is how to maintain your core central living self while submitting yourself to not only the (sometimes) alien persona of a fictional character but to the relentless forensics that is modern showbiz promotional flogging.
Amy has cannily managed this better than most, partly because of her unflagging, good-natured work ethic, but mostly because of a level-headed, uninflated sense of herself, her priorities and what is real and what is bullshit. She has a geiger counter of a bullshit meter, and for such a polite person is not afraid to hold it up to the bloated face of this business and let us all hear the ticking as loud as she does. She won’t perform what is not real, and she won’t say what is not true.
I have seen her hold back so as not to hurt feelings, and I have seen her curtail her tongue when it could (should?) give a lashing, but she makes her point as much with what she doesn’t as what she does say.
She is a sturdy girl, and a woman of many imaginative gifts: The combo should take her to as long, long, long a career as she can stand to give us.
This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
