Amy Adams' 'high threshold for embarrassment' helped her get into Nightbitch character

Amy Adams isn't afraid to get her paws dirty.

The six-time Oscar nominee tells Entertainment Weekly that her "high threshold for embarrassment" came in handy while making her latest film, Nightbitch, which sees her character, Mother, gradually turn into a dog.

"I really think it's my responsibility not to judge the situation that my characters find themselves in, but also to find what feels authentic and true about it," she explains. "And I think, although I haven't had the unique experience of actually turning into a dog, I think the human experience is pretty strange. And I think the more we talk about the strange things that happen to us at any given time in our life, it becomes strangely relatable."

Throughout the black comedy, which hails from writer-director Marielle Heller and is based on Rachel Yoder's novel of the same name, Mother finds herself in an increasingly surreal reality after she pauses her career to raise a family. She starts sprouting hair in odd places, craving raw meat, hating cats, and barking, growling, and digging in the yard — and those are just some of the antics.

She continues, "Not to say she's not doing strange things, but I have definitely done things that have made people stop and look twice. So I think I identify with having a high threshold for embarrassment."

Pressed for examples of when that high threshold has come in handy, the star, 50, first cites doing spontaneous cartwheels in public when she was younger before then settling on: "Mostly it involves singing probably — breaking out into song, yeah, if I'm being honest."

Besides finding common ground with her character, Adams says making Nightbitch was a cathartic process. One scene, in particular, stands out: Towards the end of the film, during a dinner out with old friends she no longer relates to, Mother finally unleashes her frustrations and lets it all out in a feral moment of female rage.

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"It was absolutely cathartic," Adams says of the scene. "Mari [Heller] talks about it a lot, about saying things out loud that we're not supposed to say out loud. And I think with Mother, this deep sense of loss of self and feeling invisible; I think that's something that a lot of people can identify with at different times in their life, whether it's through parenthood or not. It's an interesting journey."

Adams also hopes audiences will connect with the film even if they don't have children. "I think in a way [the film] can also be seen as an allegory because there are these times I know in my life, and I know in the people that are close to me their life, where you're sort of in-between places. You're not who you were, but you're not who you're going to be," she explains. "It's this very strange place of struggle and a place of great release, ultimately. But it takes a while to find release in the floating in between two places."

Nightbitch — also starring Scoot McNairy, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Ella Thomas, Archana Rajan, and Jessica Harper — is now playing in theaters.