Movies: Amy Adams: All dressed up

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Amy Adams isn't the only actor to portray A) a cartoon character who B) crosses over into the real world.

But she's the only one who can make the claim to have done it A) while wearing a ball gown, soaked to the skin in an artificial downpour and barefoot, while B) swordfighting a dragon and dangling from a skyscraper.

Adams, who got her start in musical theater at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, does double duty in the new Disney romantic-comedy fairy tale "Enchanted," which opens Wednesday. She first provides the lilting voice of cartoon princess Giselle, a fusion of every animated ingenue in the Disney catalog. When an evil queen propels her out of Disney World and into live-action New York City, Adams plays the flesh-and-blood Giselle, responding to the gruff folkways of Manhattan with unrestrained sincerity and innocent good cheer.

Adams, 33, is on the verge of a transformation like Giselle's, moving from a respected supporting player to a full-on star.

"Part of the reason I did this movie is I miss musical theater so much, and my time at Chanhassen," she said. "I still talk to my friends back there, though not enough. There were some times when things weren't going so well that I thought, 'Why did I ever leave; I was so happy.'"

Her 1999 role as a guileless Junior Miss contestant in "Drop Dead Gorgeous" put her on the path to Hollywood. While shooting the film in Minnesota, Kirstie Alley "more or less put that voice in my head," Adams said. "I was originally saving my pennies to go to New York. And that coincided with a leg injury that wouldn't heal. So I needed to take a break from dancing. At Chanhassen you work really hard; it's like being on Broadway. You do eight shows a week and you know, you get injured."

She found work within a couple of months of arriving, thanks in part to her habit of coming to auditions in costume. It was a carryover from her dancer's practice of dressing to reflect the style of musical theater involved, Adams said. "I do love costumes. Every outfit I put on becomes a costume, because my personal dress is not always inspired, shall we say. I love dressing up.

"This dress today," a sophisticated black outfit with a miniskirt, "inspired me to turn into a French actress." Adams tossed her shoulder-length curls and declared in an over-the-top Brigitte Bardot spoiled starlet accent, "No, I won't come out until you tell me I am beauteefoool! Zees dress is too tight. I ate too much last night, I cannot wear it!"

Steven Spielberg cast her as Leonardo DiCaprio's love interest in 2002's "Catch Me If You Can," and she won a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for "Junebug" two years ago, so these days Adams doesn't have to audition too often. She made an exception for the movie version of the Broadway musical "Nine," however.

"I ultimately didn't get the part, but my whole goal was to meet ['Chicago' director] Rob Marshall and get to sing and dance with him, which I did," she said.

The idea of wearing fairy-tale costumes in "Enchanted" was "really fun," Adams said. "When I saw the sketches I was really excited, but the actuality turned out to be a different challenge. The dress was 45 pounds, and it all had to rest on my hips, which are rather narrow. I don't really have weight-bearing hips, I've learned."

Princess Giselle's hoop skirt proved to be a "marvelous" prop, informing how the character moved and creating an awkwardness in the real world. It also created many genuinely awkward moments.

"I almost got trampled by a crowd at one point. It was a very simple street scene of me getting swept away by the crowd. The problem was that they ran onto the dress and then I couldn't move and fell backward and it was kind of scary. Being a princess has its perils."

That lesson was repeated in Adams' climactic battle with a dragon atop a New York skyscraper.

"I tried to do one stunt that I'm not qualified to do and I got banged around pretty good. It's when I jump off the building to try to catch [Giselle's love interest] Robert. I tried to do it with the stunt guy and I flinched for a second, and his boot hit me in the face and I slammed into the side of the building." The experience taught her there's a reason they put stunts at the last part of the filming schedule, she said.

"It was really challenging just in the sense that I had a lot of things to deal with. It wasn't just a suit and a fight. The special effects I did I was doing in a ball gown and barefoot in the rain with a sword. It was all explained very well in the script but I just didn't think I would be the one sliding down a rooftop in a harness and a ball gown. I was like, 'I'm going to have to read the script more closely next time.'"

Adams, who has played abrasive characters in "Cruel Intentions II" and "The Wedding Date," is in some danger of being typecast as a naive innocent. "It seems to be at this time where people have accepted me," she said. "I've definitely tried to play lots of different types of roles but that's where people seem to take notice."

Giselle, who sings cheerful "Whistle While You Work" tunes while supervising a vermin cleaning crew of pigeons, rats and cockroaches, lampoons that image. And her upcoming role in "Sunshine Cleaning," as the owner of a crime-scene sanitation service, is another step away from the adorableness ghetto. Adams insists that is all unintentional. "There are some very adorable roles coming up," she said.

Deliberate or not, Adams' choices are moving her into very good company. Her next screen appearance will be alongside Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks in Mike Nichols' "Charlie Wilson's War." When she first moved to California, Adams said, she had the "Hollywood for Dummies" crash course. "I think I could now get by on like Cliff's Notes. I don't need the whole workbook."

Colin Covert • 612-673-7186

Colin Covert • ccovert@startribune.comBEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Amy Adams isn't the only actor to portray A) a cartoon character who B) crosses over into the real world.