Patricia Clarkson joins Amy Adams in Sharp Objects

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Blumhouse and HBO are teaming up for a series based on the 2006 novel Sharp Objects, which was written by GONE GIRL / DARK PLACES author Gillian Flynn. Amy Adams has been attached to star in the show for about a year, and now she finally has her first co-star: fellow Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson.

Adams will be playing 

reporter Camille Preaker — fresh from a brief stay at a psychiatric hospital — who faces a troubling assignment: She must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille hardly has spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows, a beautiful 13-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims — a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story — and survive this homecoming.

As that description might lead you to guess, Clarkson will be playing the role of Camille's mother, Adora Crellin. Here how Adora is described: 

Queen of Wind Gap's highest society. She's haunted by the untimely passing of Camille's sister decades earlier, and her anxiety is manifested through an overbearing love and protection for her youngest, Amma (as yet uncast). The sudden return of her estranged daughter Camille provokes her subtle hostility that threatens Camille’s sobriety and sanity.

In reality, Clarkson is a few months shy of being fifteen years older than Adams. I can't say for certain, as I haven't read the book, but I assume the age gap will be larger between Adora and Camille. 

The eight episode first season of Sharp Objects is being written by Marti Noxon and Flynn. Jean-Marc Vallee is set to direct.

Adams