Patrick Dempsey, Amy Adams find an 'Enchanted' world in new movie

Three years ago, actress Amy Adams decided that it just wasn't going to happen for her.

Though she'd been working steadily as an actress for a decade, she believed she'd gone as far as she could.

An Oscar nomination later (for the tiny independent film "Junebug" in 2005), she's the star of "Enchanted," a Disney musical-comedy, opening Wednesday. She'll also be seen in December in "Charlie Wilson's War." And she's preparing to co-star with Oscar-winners Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep in the movie of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Doubt."

In "Enchanted," she even puts some pixie dust in gritty Manhattan: During the song "That's How You Know," everyday New Yorkers join her in a musical number. And she discovers the wonderful world of ... shopping!

If she weren't playing a princess, in fact, Adams would be a candidate for a "Cinderella"-style story of her own.

"I was so focused on surviving as an actor that I began to feel empty," Adams, 33, says. "I didn't feel like I'd found my voice, as a human being or an artist. So I kind of gave up the idea of pursuing a larger goal. I guess it's that old idea that, if you love something, let it be."

Talk about a magic wish: Almost as soon as Adams gave up on the idea of being a star, stardom came calling. "Junebug" was followed by a turn on "The Office," and now her holiday movie season appearance. Think of it as her princess moment, something she has a little experience with after attending "Enchanted" premieres.

"I did feel very princess-y at those times, getting all dolled up, wearing all these jewels that have to go back at midnight," she jokes.

Not everything about being a princess was enchanting. She admits that talking to an invisible chipmunk (a computer-generated character) was tough. So was wandering the streets of New York wearing a blizzard of hoops, petticoats and white satin that had a mind of its own.

"That dress weighed 45 pounds!" Adams says of the gown she wears as she's transformed from cartoon to live-action. "It was all-encompassing!"

The gown is meant for the wedding of her character, Giselle, to Prince Edward (James Marsden) in the cartoon world of "Andalusia," where "Enchanted" begins. But life turns all too real when Edward's witch of a mother (Susan Sarandon) gets rid of Giselle by pushing her into a waterfall that transports her to real-life New York. She pops out of a Times Square manhole, and meets a divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) whose life is not quite "Once Upon a Dream."

Adams' acting challenge was to make a cartoon gal seem real without losing her innocence. The willowy redhead uses a guileless smile and cheerfulness to Disney-fy her.

"I just treated her like I was playing a drama, though occasionally I'd burst into laughter at how naive she is."

Adams, raised in Colorado, grew up immersed in the performing arts, beginning as a trained dancer, then moving into theater. Before getting her first film role - in 1999's beauty-pageant mockumentary "Drop Dead Gorgeous," with Kirsten Dunst - she spent three years doing musicals at a dinner theater in Minneapolis.

"It definitely gives you a great work ethic," she says. "The most important thing I learned was that you give power to what you give attention to. That's an acting lesson - but it's also a life lesson about not getting caught up in stuff, in things that aren't important, distractions, bad influences."

So Adams isn't letting her belle-of-the-ball season go to her head. She's focused on moving forward. Just like any good Disney princess.

"I'm very practical and task-oriented," Adams says. "I'm just happy I have somewhere to go, and ... figure out who I am as a human being."

PATRICK DEMPSEY: ONCE UPON MCDREAMY

Doctor or lawyer? It doesn't matter to Patrick Dempsey, who trades one modern Prince Charming costume for another in "Enchanted," opening Wednesday.

Dempsey caused heart flutters among female TV watchers when he put on the scrubs of Dr. Derek Shepherd (aka Dr. McDreamy) on "Grey's Anatomy." Now he's another charmer - and only someone with Dempsey's boyish cheeriness could turn a prenup-obsessed divorce attorney into a handsome prince in a Disney romance.

"That term 'Prince Charming' conjures images of a Disney movie and some kind of uniform jacket," says the 41-year-old Dempsey. "I never thought of myself that way until people mentioned it [with] this movie - and I do get to wear that kind of jacket at the end."

In "Enchanted," he plays Robert, a single father in New York who meets Giselle (Amy Adams), a would-be princess cast out of her animated world by a wicked queen (Susan Sarandon). The well-grounded attorney eventually succumbs to the musical, magical appeal of Giselle, who lights up his down-to-earth worldview.

The part fit. As Adams says, "Patrick has a masculine vulnerability about him, and yet he exudes charisma."

For his part, Dempsey chose "Enchanted" because "it was fresh and commercial, and something I could take my daughter to."

His newfound popularity is the unexpected second act in a career that started before Dempsey was even 20. Between 1985 and 1990, he had the starring role - usually as a smart-aleck kid smoothie - in "Heaven Help Us," "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Loverboy."

But almost as quickly as he reached legal age, the lead roles dried up. For a decade, Dempsey found himself in made-for-TV movies, straight-to-DVD releases and sporadic TV roles.

"It was tough, that constant rejection," says Dempsey. "I worried, 'Will I get a job?' I don't think that ever goes away- careers ebb and flow. I always keep that in the back of my mind."

The shift came with an Emmy nomination in 2001 for a role on "Once and Again." A part opposite Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama" raised his profile. Then he auditioned to play a doctor ... on "House, M.D."

"I was reading for that at the same time I was getting close to 'Grey's,'" Dempsey says. "I chose 'Grey's'. I think I made the right choice."

"Grey's Anatomy" transformed Dempsey into a TV sex symbol as brain surgeon Shepherd, whose romance with intern Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and sparks with ex-wife Addison (Kate Walsh) launched a thousand Web postings. Though someone called him "Dr. McDreamy" in the pilot, Dempsey was caught off-guard when the tag stuck.

"I was surprised how people got into my character," says the father of a 5-year-old daughter and twin sons, born in February.

Is there a downside to being a modern Prince Charming? "The only downside would be believing in the hype. Fortunately, I have a family to keep things in perspective. It's hard to get too caught up in it when I go home and my 9-month-old is vomiting."

Source: nydailynews.com