Ask Mick: Stardom hard to walk away from

DEAR MICK: Can you think of any actor or movie professional who made millions of dollars early, and then just decided to quit the profession, retire and live on the money?

Robert M. Lange, Albany

DEAR ROBERT: There are some examples that seem that way anecdotally, but then you look into them and you find out otherwise, that no one leaves the party without getting shoved out the door.

For some people, a gentle nudge is enough. In 1942, for example, MGM got rid of its three most popular leading ladies from the '30s. Two of them went ahead and retired, while one of them, Joan Crawford, clawed her way back to stardom at Warner Brothers. Some stars have had successful second careers. Ricardo Cortez became a stockbroker, and William Haines became an interior decorator, but both turned to their new callings only after their stars had faded.

Basically, some people are content to pull the plug when the best is over and others won't quit until a brick wall buries them, but nobody but nobody walks away from being a movie star, because it's not about the money. It's about being a movie star.

HI MICK: I don't understand the movie industry's obsession with Amy Adams. I don't find her very compelling. She seems to play Amy Adams in every role. Is there something I'm not seeing, or am I seeing something that others aren't?

Ken Ogle, San Francisco

HI KEN: You're not seeing something others are seeing, and while you're not obligated to, you might want to try, just for your own pleasure. She's remarkable, either a great actress or someone in the process of becoming one. She is different in every role, but as with all actors, she has the same voice and face, and there are some elements that are either consistent or recurring.

In a review of "Sunshine Cleaning," I wrote that, "Adams gives us a portrait of raging want beneath a veneer of surface diffidence. In her every encounter ... you can see her eyes turn in on herself, measuring her own worth in terms of others' reactions, wondering if she's being powerful enough or if the other person has noticed that she is as frightened as she feels." That's a familiar Adams mode, but she can play off of that, as in "American Hustle," where she plays someone a lot more grasping and confident, even while roping in hints of her more usual self.

She's like the American Isabelle Carre, in that a part of her seems like a little girl who woke up one morning, suddenly 35 years old, and decided not to tell anybody, but to test out her newfound power.

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Ask Mick: Stardom hard to walk away from