If there’s a time in life that can prove to test your character, for Academy Award nominated actress Amy Adams, it came on a sun-drenched Santa Monica beach, but not in a movie. The “Klara and the Sun” actress recently shared a distressing moment that proved her incredible calmness under pressure, after she managed to save a man’s life after he was stabbed in the neck. The revelation happened in a conversation with “Smartless” podcast, where Adams brings up the harrowing experience that day, and her perspective on what it has taught her about being present during a crisis.
But there was a strength to Adams’ actions on that day in Santa Monica that she has never been associated with before in her film career, which ranged from “Arrival” to “American Hustle.” This episode in which the actress shared a memory that appeared to have stuck with her was captured during the podcast with hosts Will Arnett, Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman. Her vivid memory of the situation is remarkable because she appears to have been the first to respond to the chaos around her, seemingly intuiting what to do.
During the interview, Adams said she’s seen some scenes where she and her colleagues were the first people on the scene. The incident happened in the city of Santa Monica, famous for its stunning sea views and lively beach scene, but on this day, it was nothing like your typical sunny day. This was a relaxed day with her father, husband, and daughter when things turned dramatic. The actress said she heard people screaming, “He’s dying,” and her husband crying out, saying he could see blood, which meant that something terrible was happening near them.
Adams was quick to act, and his leadership is the type that can make the difference between the man who freezes in times of crisis and the one who rises to the occasion. She told her husband to stay with their daughter and keep her safe while she went to the place of the emergency. This split-second choice to care about her own family’s safety and the stranger’s life says a great deal about her character, and how she was able to make the decision without panicking when others would have panicked. When she got to the victim, he was bleeding from the neck and had been stabbed, she said, and the friends were so distressed, unable to help.
The reason this story is so interesting may be because of Adams’ recounting of her state of mind in the emergency situation. She wasn’t repulsed or frightened by blood, she was hyper-focused, and her mind was becoming more acute with purpose as she tried to figure out what to do and how to do it. She and her father took towels that had been packed for the beach and began applying pressure to the wound, almost as though they knew what they were doing. Adams said her father has been on “lots of scenes” herself, and seemed to have some of these emergencies coming at her as well, meaning that there may be a predilection for quick thinking in emergency situations that runs in the family.
The memory of the event that the actress recorded is very interesting and gives a unique insight into her psychological condition during the ordeal. She remembered sitting there, somehow able to convey calm and authority, to teach the man who was injured, with great presence of mind. You have to slow down your pulse, calm yourself down, she said, with voice steady and tone calm, in spite of the gravity of the situation, “Take a deep breath in. She went on to explain to him, “The harder you work, the quicker you’re going to start bleeding. Just lay down, let’s lift this.” The exactness of these instructions was of great importance in possibly prolonging the victim’s life until the arrival of professional assistance. Adams’s capacity for communicating with a person in a very bad way, giving him or her useful information and emotional reassurance is beyond most people’s emotional intelligence in normal times.
The story unfolds even more poignantly when it’s revealed that the man survived his injuries and that it was almost a year later when she ran into him. This was supposed to be an awkward, emotional get-together, but it was anything but that. The man was accompanied by his young son when he saw Adams. As he approached her, he couldn’t help but shed tears from his face, thanking her for saving his life. For Adams it was the most moving aspect of the whole experience, seeing how far-reaching an impact her actions had on another person’s life, and the life of his son. The father’s scenes in which he is able to watch his son grow up, knowing he owes that opportunity to the courage and quick thinking of a stranger, must have had a profound impact on the actress.
The podcast interview also brought back to mind a similar situation to that of an actor, Sean Hayes, who was filming an episode of “Will and Grace” and he found himself in a situation where he had to help someone who had been shot. This parallel experience brings another dimension to the discussion, as emergencies can happen to anyone, at any time, and when trauma occurs, it’s not just celebrities, but ordinary citizens who must sometimes step in. Hayes’ story is a reminder that heroism doesn’t require superhuman abilities, simply the willingness to act when others are in need.
