You know Joey Lauren Adams from Dazed and Confused (1993) and Chasing Amy (1997). In 1999, despairing of being offered another good, complex character to play, she decided to write one for herself, in a story largely about her own family, her own fears, and Arkansas, where she grew up. In 2006, after a number of discouraging false starts, she made the script, Come Early Morning, as writer and director. Adams gave the plum lead role of Lucy to Ashley Judd, who, as a result, has received her best reviews since Ruby in Paradise (1993). As the casting indicates, Adams became less interested in acting during the long process of moving her script from the page to the screen. She recently moved from Los Angeles (though she hasn’t given up her house there) to Oxford, Mississippi, where she continues to write. We had planned to conduct this interview on the balcony of Square Books, the town bookstore, but it was too cold to sit outside. Adams gave me a ride to her house in her pickup truck. She moved some heavy furniture (a big wooden table and a leather chair) just to make sure I was perfectly comfortable and had a nice place to sit.

—Jack Pendarvis

I. DOGTOWN

THE BELIEVER: Can we start out in Arkansas? Did you live in a little town, or…

JOEY LAUREN ADAMS: It wasn’t country by any means. It was North Little Rock, which was across the river from Little Rock. They call it Dogtown because back in the day the rich people used to dump their dogs across the river. On our side of the river was a dirt road

and we’d drive our trucks and drink and fight and all that stuff. And on the Little Rock side, they had gazebos. The private schools were in Little Rock. We didn’t like Little Rock girls coming to our parties.

BLVR: Why would they dump a dog in North Little Rock?

JLA: It wasn’t going to make its way back.

BLVR: What church did you go to?

JLA: Park Hill Baptist.

BLVR: Oh, Baptist, good.

JLA: Yeah, so it was Southern Baptist. But my dad drank. I had one side of my family that was really religious and the other side that was not so much. They were, but they drank and smoked. But still, you go to church.

BLVR: I remember when I saw my grandfather drink a beer in a restaurant, I actually cried. I was about eight years old. I was like…

JLA: “You’re going to hell!” I think the church is where I first got involved in drama. I was in the...