Amy Adams didn’t exactly follow a recipe when bringing Julie Powell to life on the big screen.
The “Julie/Julia Project” food blogger died on Oct. 26 from cardiac arrest, per The New York Times. At age 49, she left behind a legacy that includes that very blog, a published book titled Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen and the 2009 film Julie & Julia, which stars Amy as Julie during her journey to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child‘s cookbook—and blog her way through it.
As Amy shared in an interview for the film, there were certain traits that drew her to the role of Julie.
“It was this strong character but also completely flawed and grouchy and selfish and loving and confused,” Amy said at the time. “She was a very well architected character.”
But as Julie revealed in her honest review of the movie, she didn’t feel her onscreen adaptation was 100 percent accurate. In a 2008 post shared to Julie’s blog “What Could Happen?,” she let readers in on her thoughts after watching a pre-release rough cut of the movie.