Amy Adams Says Turning 50 Led Her to an ‘Open’ New Era: ‘I Am Not Going to Judge Myself Anymore’ (Exclusive)

For Amy Adams, a recent milestone birthday has ushered in a new sense of freedom.

“I turned 50 this year and in sort of the march up to [it], I was like, ‘I am not going to judge myself anymore. I am going to be accepting,’ ” the star says in this week’s issue of PEOPLE.

In this era of her career, Adams adds, she feels freer than ever to explore the unknown. “I think I’m really open,” she continues. “I’m in a place of really looking for new experiences.”

A daring new role in Nightbitch has played a major role in her outlook. In the new dramedy, Adams explores the shadows of new motherhood playing an unmoored character simply named Mother, who is battling an imploded sense of self after welcoming her first child. 

Trying to find herself again while grappling with the isolation of childcare (and an absent husband played by Scoot McNairy who blithely imparts to his wife that “happiness is a choice”), Mother seemingly starts morphing into an actual dog. 

“I think that journey of really tapping into self and tapping into the ferocity of your feelings and the ferocity of your love for your child and being unapologetic about that, that’s a wonderful place to get to live,” says Adams, whose daughter Aviana with artist Darren Le Gallo is now 14.

She adds that Nightbitch’s no-holds-barred style of filmmaking, which embraced everything from the actress’s exhaustion coming off an intense London play and real chin hairs (“they were going to use prosthetic hair, and I was like, ‘I can do better than that”) to an unapologetic embrace of the feral, “did help me [find that acceptance].” “This is what I’m working on today. And not sort of having these unrealistic expectations for myself.”

Adams recalls finding her own stride with motherhood and work when Aviana “was about three or four,” she says, roughly after she filmed American Hustle. 

“I cemented a thought, which was, ‘I am going to find balance between work and life and really be present in parenting,'” she says. “I just was like, ‘I am going to do this differently and really create a work-life balance that supports me.’” 

There is one boundary Adams has kept as she’s continued to stretch her career.

“I do think about my daughter’s experience with [a role] being out there,” says Adams, who enjoyed a rare red carpet experience with Aviana and Le Gallo at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, when Nighbitch had its international premiere. “So I find myself drawing boundaries that I am always thinking about [with] how me being a public person impacts her.”

With six Oscar nominations under her belt, the acclaimed actress is currently earning awards buzz once again for her fearless film.

She embraces the fun of the season. “I always lean into what’s really wonderful about it, because I get to talk to people I wouldn’t have talked to,” says Adams, citing a recent sit-down discussion with Demi Moore and a reunion with her Arrival director Denis Villeneuve.

“Whatever the outcome is,” she says, “I’m always just happy to have had the opportunity to have those moments with different people that I’ve met or gotten to reconnect with.”

For more of Amy Adams’s interview, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday.