Amy Adams: From 'June Bug' To Lois Lane

Henry Cavill might have been getting a little lonely in Metropolis. Two months after landing the role of Superman in Zack Snyder's reboot of the superhero franchise, the 27-year-old actor still hadn't found out who'd become his Lois Lane.

The answer arrived on Sunday: Amy Adams will be play the Daily Planet reporter and Superman love interest. In a statement, Snyder called Adams "one of the most versatile and respected actresses in films today." That's hardly an overstatement: The 36-year-old star has performed in indies and blockbusters, musicals and animated fare, solemn dramas and bawdy comedies. Along the way she's managed to earn three Oscar nominations, the latest for her supporting turn last year in "The Fighter."

A former Hooters waitress, Adams made her debut in 1999's "Drop Dead Gorgeous" as a dim and cheerful beauty-pageant contestant. Supporting roles on the big and small screen followed, but her next step up the Hollywood food chain didn't arrive until Steven Spielberg cast her as Leonardo DiCaprio's love interest in 2002's "Catch Me If You Can." While things were undoubtedly going well for the actress, she then took a step back from the spotlight over the next few years and only fully resurfaced in very unlikely fashion.

"June Bug," a sort of "Meet the Parents" for the art-house crowd that starred Adams as a wide-eyed gal named Ashley who's days away from giving birth and seemingly miles away from planet earth, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005. The performance won her a special jury prize for acting — and a year later she earned her first Oscar nod for the part. The decision to avoid mainstream fare turned out to be just what Adams' career needed.

"If you love the project, you love the project, and you could be making millions of dollars and have millions of dollars to spend or no money to spend and making no money," Adams told us at the time. "But it's about the script and it's about the people and it's about the story."

From there she began mixing studio pictures ("Talladega Nights") with indie roles ("Sunshine Cleaning"), and ended up wowing critics and audiences in "Enchanted," a film that managed to breathe new life into movie musicals while at the same time paying deep respect to the genre. There was also a short but satisfying arc on "The Office" as Jim Halpert's (John Krasinski) handbag-slinging girlfriend. By the start of 2009, Adams would earn her second Oscar nod — this one for playing a 1960s-era nun in "Doubt" — and yet she couldn't quite get used to the idea that she was indeed a movie star.

"You see yourself onscreen, or you see pictures of yourself, and it can get really heady. I don't think human beings are supposed to look at themselves that much," she said in a 2009 Allure interview, adding that she used to think of herself as "homely" and "painfully small, short, with too much blue eye shadow because I thought, 'It matches my eyes, so why not?' "

Perhaps by now, following her third Oscar honor, she's more comfortable with the notion of celebrity. Hopefully. Because her star is about to rise to a whole new level. There's her turn as Jason Segel's girlfriend in "The Muppets," set to premiere later this year, and she wrapped production last year on "On the Road" opposite Kristen Stewart. In addition, she's attached to play Janis Joplin in a big-screen biopic. But none of that will compare to the exposure the new "Superman" movie will bring her when it premieres in December 2012. Snyder, for one, couldn't be happier with the choice.

"Amy has the talent to capture all of the qualities we love about Lois," he said. "[S]mart, tough, funny, warm, ambitious and, of course, beautiful."

What's your favorite Amy Adams performance? Tell us in the comments.