Talking with Amy Adams

1. Need a good excuse for a break? Try pregnancy…
”People give you permission to rest,” says the 35-year-old, who’s expecting her first child with fiancé Darren Le Gallo. ”This is a great, great time to slow down.”

2. …and then treat yourself to a staycation.
”I sound so Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, but I think there’s no place like home. I’ve been traveling so much, that’s what I’ve learned for myself.”

3. A cute Irish guy always seals the deal.
In Leap Year, she plays Anna, a woman who goes to Ireland and falls for a local named Declan (A Single Man‘s Matthew Goode). ”I loved Anna, but I thought Declan was really sexy. He’s so masculine and perpetually grouchy — I think it’s sooo cute!”

4. Stay true to your character.
Adams played author Julie Powell in Julie & Julia, but she isn’t so sure about Powell’s new memoir, Cleaving, which details an extramarital affair. ”I heard there were some indiscretions. It broke my heart. What? No! Well, my Julie Powell did not do that.”

5. Play it for laughs.
”I love a spectacle,” says Adams, who starred as a madcap Amelia Earhart in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. ”Any excuse to chew on some scenery in an appropriate way is a lot of fun.”