It sounds like the plot of one of her own movies — except Amy Adams actually lived it. Long before her latest small-screen role, the actress found herself administering real emergency care on a Santa Monica sidewalk.
Amy Adams revealed she once helped save a stabbing victim’s life, and her brief stint on a short-lived CBS medical drama nearly 20 years ago may have helped prepare her to handle the emergency.
Amy Adams attends the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 5, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Getty Images
The “Enchanted” actress recounted the incident during an appearance on the “SmartLess” podcast with Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman, and Will Arnett. Adams said she was leaving a restaurant in Santa Monica, California, when she noticed a disturbance nearby.
“These people were screaming and a guy was walking and they were yelling, ‘He’s dying!'” she recalled. She said she told her husband to stay with their daughter while she and her father rushed in to help.
They grabbed beach towels to stop the bleeding, with her father applying pressure to the wound while Adams focused on keeping the victim calm and breathing steadily.
Amy Adams attends the Apple TV Press Day on February 3, 2026 in Santa Monica, California. | Source: Getty Images
As she spoke to the injured man, Adams seemingly referenced her time playing registered nurse Alice Doherty on “Dr. Vegas,” suggesting the experience may have informed how she responded in the moment.
The series, which starred Rob Lowe as Dr. Billy Grant, aired on CBS for just 10 episodes in 2004.
“And I’m sitting there somehow going, ‘You need to calm your pulse rate. Take a deep breath in.’ I literally was just so focused. I was like, ‘The more you struggle, the faster you’re going to bleed. Just lay down. Let’s elevate this,” she continued.
Amy Adams at the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 22 in Santa Monica, California. | Source: Getty Images
Adams also revealed that she unexpectedly crossed paths with the victim about a year after the incident.
“A guy walks up to me in a restaurant,” she said. “He’s like, ‘I heard a story that you and your dad were on the scene of a guy getting stabbed.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s so funny you heard that story.'”
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s you,'” Adams said. “He was all teary, and he had his son with him. It was so crazy.” The Oscar-nominated star, who was promoting her new Apple TV series, “Cape Fear,” had joked earlier in the conversation that she’d always dreamed of becoming a doctor.
