Amy Adams' “Nightbitch” Performance 'Freaked Out' Her Canine Costars and They Started Lunging at Her: 'It Was Wild'

"Her behavior was too odd and it flipped them," writer-director Marielle Heller said at the Toronto International Film Festival

Amy Adams explores her wild side in Nightbitch, which made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, Sept. 7.

During a Q&A following the screening, the six-time Oscar nominee and writer-director Marielle Heller recalled how Adams' canine costars reacted to her powerful performance as a new mom who is convinced she’s turning into a dog.

"There's a scene where Amy walks down the steps to all the dogs in the yard, and we'd practiced with the trainers over and over again: She's going to walk on this step and walk down, and you'll all start swarming around her. We did it over and over and over again," Heller said at the event. "Of course, Amy is acting when she does it, so she's doing this weird looking at the dogs [thing], and the dogs freaked out and started lunging at her."

Adams, 50, added that "one dog was like, that's not okay, that's not cool."

"It almost ruined the whole shoot," Heller replied. "The trainers were like, 'Oh, they thought she was stalking them.' Her behavior was too odd and it flipped them. It was wild."

Adams admitted that she "freaked the dogs out," but noted, "We got it under control."

"We took one off, the one that was still not going to be okay no matter what I did because he didn't trust me after that," the actress continued. "He got a rest for the rest of the night."

Per a synopsis of the anticipated adaptation of author Rachel Yoder's popular 2021 novel, Adams’ character “pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom, but soon her new domesticity takes a surreal turn.” Are her doglike features merely a trick of the imagination? 

Related: Amy Adams Plays a Stay-at-Home Mom Who Thinks She's Turning Into a Dog in Nightbitch Trailer

Written and directed by A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood filmmaker Heller, Nightbitch also stars Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Patrick Snowden, Emmett James Snowden, Zo? Chao, Mary Holland, Archana Rajan and Jessica Harper.

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Heller told Vanity Fair in August of Adams' commitment to the role, "She was this gorgeous movie star who was never allowed to look real, and she got to look real" here.

Adams added of her transformation, “I wasn’t judging anything as it was going on. I wasn’t judging my physical appearance. I was just in the character so much. So, yeah, I suppose that can feel liberating at times, but also terrifying.”

The actress hasn't been seen on screen since 2022's Disenchanted, the sequel to her 2007 Disney breakout Enchanted. Among her other upcoming projects is costarring with Jenna Ortega in Klara and the Sun, from director Taika Waititi.

Adams and her husband, Darren Le Gallo, share daughter Ariana, 14, who they welcomed in 2010. The actress has spoken openly about raising her daughter, telling Entertainment Tonight in a 2017 interview that she hopes to be a source of inspiration for Aviana.

"I want [Aviana] to know that it is not just women that can soar, she can soar and she needs to find her own light. I know she is on that path," Adams told the outlet. "That is something that I need to remind her. No light that shines on me creates a shadow for her to stand in."

Nightbitch is in theaters Dec. 6.

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