actress vs adult female

actress and adult female both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
actress	Yes	No	No	No
adult female	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, adult female is a hypernym of actress; that is, adult female is a word with a broader meaning than actress:

Other hypernyms of actress include actor, histrion, player, role player, thespian, woman.

actress (noun)	adult female (noun)
a female actor	an adult female person (as opposed to a man)