Amy Adams: playing opposite some of the movies’ biggest names, she’s making one for herself.

When Amy Adams got the call from her agent saying that she’d heard from Steven Spielberg’s office, the actress didn’t quite believe it–even though she had already auditioned and been told the final casting decisions would be made that week. “My agent said, ‘Steven Spielberg wants to work with you,’ and I was like, ‘But…’ You get used to disappointment in L.A.,” she says.

Adams has appeared, briefly, in a handful of movies (most recently the forgettable Serving Sara) and on such TV shows as The West Wing and Buffy the Vampire Slayer–”I was the guest-spot queen,” she recalls with a self-deprecating laugh–but it is her role as Leonardo DiCaprios love interest in Catch Me If You Can, Spielberg’s spin on the real-life adventures of an exceptionally gifted con man, that has propelled the witty, winsome actress to Next Big Thing status. When she talks about playing opposite DiCaprio in a Spielberg movie that also stars Tom Hanks, the Castle Rock, Colorado, native still seems a bit stunned: “It sounds corny, but Leonardo was so generous. And funny. And Steven lets you be so free.”

She may be on stardom’s edge, but Adams is not about to fall into any Hollywood traps. “I’m one of seven kids,” she explains. “That’ll keep your ego in check.”

Diane Baroni is a writer and editor in New York.