Joey Lauren Adams (born January 9, 1968) is an American actress who has appeared in more than thirty films. She is known for her distinctive, raspy voice and for her roles in View Askewniverse films, particularly ''Mallrats'' and ''Chasing Amy'', with the latter giving her a Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination.

Career

Meanwhile, in 1996, while Smith was finalizing the script for ''Chasing Amy'', she was cast for a role in the slapstick comedy ''Bio-Dome'', which was directed by Jason Bloom. Adams played the role of Monique, girlfriend to Bud Macintosh (Pauly Shore).

In 1997's ''Chasing Amy'', Smith cast Adams in the lead role of Alyssa Jones, a lesbian who falls in love with a man, played by Ben Affleck. Later, Smith would describe ''Chasing Amy'' as a "sort of penance/valentine" and a "thank-you homage" to Adams. In addition to her acting work on the film, Adams wrote and performed the song "Alive" for the movie's soundtrack.

Adams' performance in ''Chasing Amy'' earned her both the 1997 Chicago Film Critics Award and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Most Promising Actress, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. From there, Adams was originally slated to play the female lead in Smith's next film, 1999's ''Dogma'', but Linda Fiorentino ultimately got the part. However, she would later make brief appearances in two other Smith projects: the 2001 film ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'', and the 2004 animated short ''Clerks: The Lost Scene'', featured on the ''Clerks X'' DVD. In both of these appearances, Adams reprised the role of Alyssa Jones.

Her post-Smith projects included playing a spunky veterinarian's assistant who falls in love with a single father (Vince Vaughn) in 1998's ''A Cool, Dry Place''. The following year, Adams appeared in her first big-budget Hollywood release, playing Adam Sandler's love interest in the successful comedy ''Big Daddy''. She then went on to appear in many smaller films, including ''Beautiful'' and ''In the Shadows''.

In 2005, she had a guest role in an episode of the TV show ''Veronica Mars''. Also in 2006, Adams released her directorial debut, ''Come Early Morning'', starring Ashley Judd, Jeffrey Donovan, Diane Ladd, Tim Blake Nelson and Laura Prepon. The film, shot on location in Little Rock, Arkansas, was selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2006, she, along with Lian Lunson and Nicole Holofcener, was awarded the Women in Film Dorothy Arzner Directors Award.

On November 24, 2009, Interscope Records released Adams' directorial debut for a music video entitled "Belle of the Boulevard" by Dashboard Confessional.

Adams returned to TV in March 2010, on the Showtime series ''The United States of Tara''. She appeared in six episodes as Pammy, a barmaid who falls for Buck, one of the title character's alternate personalities.

Some speculation has been made that her high-pitched speaking voice has hampered her chances of Hollywood stardom, to which she has commented: "It's not a normal voice. It doesn't fit into people's preconceptions about what a woman's voice should sound like. My mom doesn't think I have an unusual voice, though. I'm sure it's helped me get some roles. But ''Chasing Amy'' I almost didn't get. There was concern the voice would grate on some people, which some critics said it did." One film critic referred to her voice as a "sex-kitten-on-helium". Another said that whether viewers loved it or hated it, her voice had "the potential to hypnotize."

Personal life

Filmography

Television

References

External links

Category:1968 births Category:Actors from Arkansas Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American music video directors Category:American television actors Category:Female film directors Category:Living people Category:People from Little Rock, Arkansas Category:People from Oxford, Mississippi

Joey Lauren Adams (born January 9, 1968) is an American actress who has appeared in more than thirty films. She is known for her distinctive, raspy voice and for her roles in View Askewniverse films, particularly ''Mallrats'' and ''Chasing Amy'', with the latter giving her a Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination.

Career

Meanwhile, in 1996, while Smith was finalizing the script for ''Chasing Amy'', she was cast for a role in the slapstick comedy ''Bio-Dome'', which was directed by Jason Bloom. Adams played the role of Monique, girlfriend to Bud Macintosh (Pauly Shore).

In 1997's ''Chasing Amy'', Smith cast Adams in the lead role of Alyssa Jones, a lesbian who falls in love with a man, played by Ben Affleck. Later, Smith would describe ''Chasing Amy'' as a "sort of penance/valentine" and a "thank-you homage" to Adams. In addition to her acting work on the film, Adams wrote and performed the song "Alive" for the movie's soundtrack.

Adams' performance in ''Chasing Amy'' earned her both the 1997 Chicago Film Critics Award and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Most Promising Actress, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. From there, Adams was originally slated to play the female lead in Smith's next film, 1999's ''Dogma'', but Linda Fiorentino ultimately got the part. However, she would later make brief appearances in two other Smith projects: the 2001 film ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'', and the 2004 animated short ''Clerks: The Lost Scene'', featured on the ''Clerks X'' DVD. In both of these appearances, Adams reprised the role of Alyssa Jones.

Her post-Smith projects included playing a spunky veterinarian's assistant who falls in love with a single father (Vince Vaughn) in 1998's ''A Cool, Dry Place''. The following year, Adams appeared in her first big-budget Hollywood release, playing Adam Sandler's love interest in the successful comedy ''Big Daddy''. She then went on to appear in many smaller films, including ''Beautiful'' and ''In the Shadows''.

In 2005, she had a guest role in an episode of the TV show ''Veronica Mars''. Also in 2006, Adams released her directorial debut, ''Come Early Morning'', starring Ashley Judd, Jeffrey Donovan, Diane Ladd, Tim Blake Nelson and Laura Prepon. The film, shot on location in Little Rock, Arkansas, was selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2006, she, along with Lian Lunson and Nicole Holofcener, was awarded the Women in Film Dorothy Arzner Directors Award.

On November 24, 2009, Interscope Records released Adams' directorial debut for a music video entitled "Belle of the Boulevard" by Dashboard Confessional.

Adams returned to TV in March 2010, on the Showtime series ''The United States of Tara''. She appeared in six episodes as Pammy, a barmaid who falls for Buck, one of the title character's alternate personalities.

Some speculation has been made that her high-pitched speaking voice has hampered her chances of Hollywood stardom, to which she has commented: "It's not a normal voice. It doesn't fit into people's preconceptions about what a woman's voice should sound like. My mom doesn't think I have an unusual voice, though. I'm sure it's helped me get some roles. But ''Chasing Amy'' I almost didn't get. There was concern the voice would grate on some people, which some critics said it did." One film critic referred to her voice as a "sex-kitten-on-helium". Another said that whether viewers loved it or hated it, her voice had "the potential to hypnotize."

Personal life

Filmography

Television

References

External links

Category:1968 births Category:Actors from Arkansas Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American music video directors Category:American television actors Category:Female film directors Category:Living people Category:People from Little Rock, Arkansas Category:People from Oxford, Mississippi

Mary Nell Steenburgen (born February 8, 1953) is an American actress. She won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's 1980 film ''Melvin and Howard''.

Early life

Career

In only her third film, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1980 film ''Melvin and Howard'', playing the wife of a man who claims to have befriended reclusive eccentric Howard Hughes. Another notable film appearances came in the well-received 1983 film ''Cross Creek''.

In ''Back to the Future Part III'' (1990), Steenburgen played Clara Clayton, a school teacher who falls in love with Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd. She was persuaded to play the role by her children, as well as by fans of the ''Back to the Future'' films, and reprised the role by providing the character's voice in ''Back to the Future: The Animated Series''.

Other performances have been: in ''What's Eating Gilbert Grape'' (1993), as a woman who is having an affair with the title character (played by Johnny Depp); the role of Hannah Nixon in the Oliver Stone biopic, ''Nixon'' (1995); and in the Will Ferrell 2003 comedy ''Elf'', as a woman who discovers that her husband is the father of one of Santa's elves.

In television, she has starred in the sitcom ''Ink'' (1996) with her husband Ted Danson, and co-starred in the television miniseries ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1996) with Danson. She appeared as herself alongside Danson in the HBO comedy ''Curb Your Enthusiasm''. She played mother of the title character in the CBS drama series ''Joan of Arcadia''. In 2011, she made guest appearances in ''Bored to Death'', again alongside Danson.

In recent years, she has been in the comedy films, ''Step Brothers'' (2008), starring Will Ferrell, playing the mother of Ferrell's character; ''Four Christmases'' (2008) opposite Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon; and ''The Proposal'' (2009) opposite Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.

Steenburgen received the 2,395th star on Hollywood Walk of Fame on December 16, 2009.

It was announced in June 2010 that Steenburgen would star in a 2011 FX pilot, ''Outlaw Country''.

''Dirty Girl'', which features Steenburgen along with Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich and William H. Macy, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 12, 2010. She also appeared in the critically acclaimed film ''The Help'' (2011), starring opposite Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Personal life

On October 7, 1995, Steenburgen married actor Ted Danson. In September 2005, she and Danson gave a guest lecture for students at the Clinton School of Public Service where they discussed their roles in public service as well as the foundations and causes in which they are involved. An alumna of Hendrix College, Steenburgen received an honorary doctorate from the institution in 1989. In 2006, Steenburgen received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas.

She is a close friend of Secretary of State and former Senator Hillary Clinton, and supported Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign along with Danson.

She splits her time living in Ojai, California and Martha's Vineyard, in addition to sharing a condominium with Danson in the River Market District of Little Rock.

In January 2012, Steenburgen became a grandmother when her daughter Lilly gave birth to a girl named Clementine Mae.

Filmography

References

External links

Category:1953 births Category:Actors from Arkansas Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Living people Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Jackson County, Arkansas Category:Saturn Award winners