TMS Muse of the Week: Amy Irving
(Michael Childers)
It’s somewhat amusing to think at one point in history, ordinary, steady working actress Amy Irving received one of the highest divorce settlements in the US. Reportedly $100M from first husband Steven Spielberg in 1989. One of the greatest filmmakers in Hollywood is now mostly viewed as your average family man through his second marriage to another actress, Kate Capshaw. But before that union, the man who gave us our favorite friendly alien and many screen adventures was in quite the dysfunctional showbiz romance. The lady of topic, Amy, has always gotten modest attention for her screen efforts, to the point where I would call her an overlooked favorite. Growing up in San Francisco as what the modern lingo refers to as a ‘nepotism kid;’ her father, Jules Irving, was a successful, professional theatre director, while mother, Priscilla Pointer was a film/TV character actress. Amy wasn’t living it up in Beverly Hills as a child like some of her acting peers, but it wasn’t a surprise she sought out her own place in entertainment either. The starlet had the connections, training, talent and unique beauty [i.e. her tight, voluminous curls] to be in the movies.
Why Amy never officially became a movie star like friends Carrie Fisher or Teri Garr is a whirlwind of reasons. One was because of fate, another was by her own rejection, and another was the result from her messy history with Steven. In the late 1970s, the young man was the hottest director in cinema thanks to his mega-blockbuster Jaws (1975); while Amy portrayed the only nice friend in Brian de Palma’s classic screen adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie (1976). Naturally, getting together could easily be beneficial not only for the pair’s love lives, but also their careers; like it was for Brian and Carrie co-star Nancy Allen. Yet, the brunette was reluctant to be referred to as ‘Steven Spielberg’s girlfriend.’ Only a year into dating, Amy turned down Teri’s role in Steven’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), not ready to combine relationships with work. Instead, she reunited with Brian on a less successful sci-fi horror flick, The Fury (1978). This didn’t give her much exposure, but it did give her the opportunity to act alongside legends Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes. During production of Carrie, Amy was also one of many actresses who auditioned for the female lead in Steven’s buddy, George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (1977).
(Kathy Hutchins / Zuma Press)
Only a couple years later, Amy and Steven broke up when the latter found out the former secretly had a fling with married co-star Willie Nelson while filming Jerry Schatzberg’s Honeysuckle Rose (1980). Unfortunately for Amy, this led to her missing out on playing the character Marion Ravenwood in Steven’s hit action-adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). But apparently not all was lost between the couple, as they rekindled in 1982 and married in 1985, with son Max born that same year. Before separating for good in 1989, Amy and Steven ultimately collaborated on only one film together: Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988); where Steven was the main producer and Amy provided the singing vocals for toon femme fatale Jessica Rabbit.
But Amy still has a lot to be proud of on her resume despite the relationship drama. She gained a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Academy Awards for Barbra Streisand’s Yentl (1983); a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Made-for-TV Movie with Marvin J. Chomsky’s Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986); starred as the love interest in the 1981-82 Broadway production of Paul Shaffer’s ‘Amadeus;’ appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed ensemble Traffic (2000), Joan Micklin Silver’s indie romcom Crossing Delancey (1988) and on ABC’s thriller series “Alias” (2002-05). During all this she conceived a second son, Gabriel [b. 1990] with second husband, film director Bruno Barreto.
Amy might not have portrayed the role of a lifetime with Marion Ravenwood or Princess Leia, but she’s a part of film history in more ways than one.