Amy Irving laughs on the telephone when asked whether others have commented on the fact that it's disorienting to see her playing the mother -- and not the daughter -- in Max Mayer's Adam.
"Yeah, well, life happens," Irving says. "Time goes by."
So, instead of playing Beth Buchwald (a role filled by Rose Byrne), love interest to the title character in Adam, she plays Beth's mother, a woman with troubles of her own to deal with. Irving, 55, and finishing a summer run in the Hamptons in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, says she wouldn't have it any other way.
"Right now, I'm doing Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and it's so much better than playing an ingénue role," Irving says. "About 25 years ago, I played Laura, with my mother playing Amanda. Now I'm playing the best role of my life so I have zero complaints. I love it. I have a passion to do theater."
In Adam, Irving plays the mother -- married to Peter Gallagher as an ethics-challenged attorney -- to a daughter who falls for Hugh Dancy, as a young engineer who happens to have Asperger's syndrome, a strain of autism.
"I liked that she wasn't a clichéd angry wife -- she was able to keep her cool," Irving says. "She's someone who had a wisdom.
"To tell the truth, I took the role because Leslie (Urdang, one of Adam's producers) was Joan Micklin Silver's assistant on Crossing Delancey. I had sent her a script I translated from Portuguese and said I'd like to do this at Vassar (where Urdang was involved with Mayer in New York Stage and Film). And they did a full production. It even moved to New York. So when she said Max was directing his first film, I didn't even read it -- I just said yes. Well, yes, of course, I did read it. Plus it was shooting in New York. So I said yes because I respect them. They're smart, talented people."
Irving admits that her memories of actually acting in Adam are somewhat blurry: "I shot it right after my honeymoon, so I was high-as-a-kite happy. So a little bit of that part of the performance may have been unconscious. When I saw the movie, I thought it was funny and touching and moving. Max had talents I had no idea he had. The movie walks a fine line of tone. I was pleased to be a part of it."
For the rest of this interview, click here to reach my website: www.hollywoodandfine.com.
Follow Marshall Fine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hollywoodnfine
