When she came to join me onstage for Deadline’s fourth annual The Contenders Emmys awards-season event at Paramount Studios, Amy Adams said that when HBO’s latest limited series Sharp Objects came across her desk it was something that truly “terrified” her in terms of the thought of actually playing the lead character Camille, a journalist who comes back to her own small town to investigate a murder and finds her whole life unraveling in ways she never expected.

HBO

Being “terrified” s exactly why Adams decided she must do it, and the deal was sealed she told the packed audience of key TV Academy and guild Emmy voters when Jean-Marc Vallee (Big Little Lies) came aboard to direct the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel, for which the author and Marti Noxon wrote the complex teleplay that spreads over eight episodes.

Vallee also discussed the intricacies of Adams’ performance in bringing to life Camille, a woman who wrote words all over her body — just one of the unusual things Adams had to deal with in playing her.

Sharp Objects represents Adams’ first major TV appearance since breaking though to the big screen with six Oscar nominations to date. She won the Critics’ Choice award for her Sharp Objects performance earlier in the year, and there is lots of Emmy buzz now.

Check out our conversation in the video above.