Amy Adams Says Failed TV Role Helped Her Save a Stabbing Victim

Amy Adams said on the Smartless podcast this week that she once helped save the life of a man who had been stabbed, using first-aid knowledge she picked up while filming the short-lived hospital drama Dr. Vegas. The series lasted only five episodes and aired on CBS in 2004, but Adams said one lesson from it proved crucial in a real emergency.

Adams recalled that she and her family were the first to reach the scene after leaving a favorite restaurant in Santa Monica, California. “There were people screaming, and we saw a man walking while they shouted, ‘He’s dying!’,” she said. Her husband, actor Darren Le Gallo, stayed with their daughter while Adams and her father rushed to help.

After realizing the victim had been stabbed in the neck, Adams said she stayed calm and used beach towels to press on the wound and slow the bleeding. She also told the man, “The more you struggle, the more blood you lose. Just lie down.” Adams said that was the same advice she had been taught while playing nurse Alice Doherty on Dr. Vegas.

Adams, best known for Enchanted, said that about a year later she ran into the victim at a restaurant. He told her he had heard that she and her father had been at the stabbing scene, and she replied, “Oh my God, it’s you,” confirming he was the same man.