“Don’t Be Sad”: An Interview with Amy Adams

On Friday, recently sent home American Idol 3 contestant Amy Adams had a chance to talk to various print outlets on a media conference call, including RealityNewsOnline/Foxes On Idol.

On the call, Amy was bubbly as always and she frequently repeated that nobody should feel bad about her leaving, because she doesn’t. She honestly feels that she left at the top of her game and that it will be a benefit to her. She indicated that because people are saying she was robbed, it will make people want to hear more from her, rather than if she had hung around for a while and left with people saying that it was time for her to go. She also refused to speculate on why she left when she did, saying several times that she was not going to beat herself up about it, nor would she predict how anybody else would do.

During the call, I asked Amy a few questions that I knew our readers wanted to know about. First, as Donna Reynolds has reported, a number of the songs on the AI3 finalists’ album are not songs the contestants actually performed. I asked Amy how those were chosen and she said that Clive Davis and other producers picked the songs for them.

I asked Amy whether the singers discussed the voting amongst themselves after each results show. She said that the did to some degree, but it wasn’t a major topic of conversation. They all have a great energy together as a team, so they didn’t focus on why somebody did well or poorly in the voting. They focused on what they were doing while they were doing it and pushed forward.

Finally, I asked Amy about the look we all saw on John Stevens’ face during last week’s Results Show. She said that she and John have been really good friends from the get-go, in the Top 100, and as sad as she was to leave, he was that sad to see her go. Certainly she can’t know all of what he was thinking, but she said it was definitely a hard situation. After all, he’s 16 and she’s 24, so they’re in very different places. She doesn’t know if she would have been able to maintain her strength and consistency at that age. She said she felt bad for him even though she was the one leaving.

Several times during the call, a couple other reporters tried to get her to slam Simon. But Amy pointed out that after the show was over, Simon came on stage and gave her a hug. He told her that because of her personality and quality as a person, she shines and they’re going to miss that. But in response to later questions, Amy indicated that Simon could frustrating at times. He did tell her that she had a great voice and star quality, but, “A lot of times he was speechless with me, that’s almost a good thing with him.”

But in general she praised the judges and said she did act on their advice. After the first week of the finals, they told her to have more fun and not be so safe, which is why she did “Sin Wagon” for Country week. She said Randy gave the best advice for her, since, as already noted, Simon was usually speechless. She does believe that the judges’ comments do influence how people vote, but not completely – as seen by the fact that the Bottom 3 last week all had wonderful comments. Yet some who did not receive such great comments were not there.

One comment by Simon got her quite a bit of notice, however – his remark that Amy looked like Jay Leno’s sister. Leno actually invited Amy to appear on the show and she was there the day after she was voted out! Amy was thankful for that, pointing out that if she had not been voted out, she wouldn’t have been able to do that. She said the experience was wonderful and she followed only a few previous Idols on the show, listing Ruben, Kelly, and Clay (she forgot Justin, who appeared with Kelly to promote their flop, From Justin to Kelly).

As her discussion of the Leno appearance showed, Amy could find a positive in any negative, it seems. She was asked where she got her upbeat attitude, and she said that it came from her mother, who has Lupus. She taught Amy to never have any regrets, live each day as your last, and make sure you’re a wonderful person.

When it came to choosing her songs, Amy relied solely on herself. She said that if she relied on others and it didn’t go well, she would have had a feeling that she should have just gone with her own gut. But this way there was never even a possibility for that regret. There was some strategy in picking songs, as in looking at slow or fast songs. She said she loves singing ballads but her personality doesn’t shine through and she looks stronger when she can dance and move around. Still, she knows how to sing a power ballad.

In response to questions about Country week and her great performance that night, Amy did indicate that she loves country music but hadn’t really thought much about going into that area. Now she will definitely look into it! She said it felt right up her alley.

But if she could pick any theme and guest judge, she would bring back Billy Joel, who appeared (if only on tape) last season, or else she’s love to see Stevie Wonder.

One reporter asked Amy if she had any advice for her cohort Jon Peter Lewis. She replied that he’s doing just fine and pointed out that nobody was holding up signs saying, “Marry Me, Amy Adams!”

One or two interviewers on the call were looking for some dirt. One doing a story about the AI house kept asking about the house rules (“Be on time”), if anybody broke them (“No”), and if they cleaned up after themselves. The last question finally appeared to have gotten on the nerves even of the ever-happy Amy, who remarked that she didn’t know because they weren’t really at the house much. “We’re doing a show, American Idol, you know.” It was a well-aimed shot – good for Amy!

The main thing Amy wants people to know is that she was true to herself and wouldn’t change a thing. In fact, that’s also her advice for future Idol hopefuls. She’s okay with how things ended and says she does have some things in the works, but she can’t talk about them right now – she is focusing on preparing the for the AI3 group tour in June.

We’ll leave with a quote that sums up everything Amy showed us during her all-too-short stay on American Idol: “Don’t be sad, I’m not sad.”

David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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