Amy Adams once saved a man's life outside a Santa Monica restaurant, and she credits a short-lived CBS medical drama for giving her the knowledge to do it.
Adams shared the story on the Smartless podcast, according to Variety. She said her family was among the "first people on the scene" after walking out of their "favorite" Santa Monica restaurant when they heard screaming and realized someone had been seriously hurt nearby.
"These people were screaming and a guy was walking and they were yelling, 'He's dying!' And my husband's like, 'That's blood!'" Adams recalled.
Her husband, Darren Le Gallo, stayed back with their daughter while Adams and her father rushed toward the victim. The man had been stabbed in the neck and was bleeding heavily. Adams said she felt unusually calm and focused in the moment. She grabbed beach towels and applied pressure to the wound to slow the bleeding.
She told the victim directly: "The more you struggle, the faster you're going to bleed. Just lay down." That advice, she explained, came from her time playing registered nurse Alice Doherty on Dr. Vegas, a CBS drama that ran for just five episodes in 2004.
The show starred Rob Lowe as Dr. Billy Grant, a young physician who lives and works in an old-school Las Vegas resort and casino. The cast also included Sarah Lancaster, Lisa Gabriel, Joe Pantoliano, Tom Sizemore, and Adam Clark. Despite its brief run, the show clearly left Adams with practical knowledge she was able to apply years later in a real emergency.
About a year after the incident, Adams encountered the man again, this time at a restaurant. The reunion was unexpected.
"A guy walks up to me… He's like, 'I heard a story that you and your dad were on the scene of a guy getting stabbed,'" she remembered. "And I was like, 'Oh my God, it's you.' And it was him."
