Rachel McAdams (Ontario, Canada, 45 years old) was going to be an ice skater. She started in this sport when she was only four years old and soon began to stand out in children’s championships. When she had to decide whether to continue professionally, she thought that what she really wanted was to have a normal, quiet life with her friends. And that decision reveals a lot about the character of the actress, one of the few who dares not to participate in the game. hollywood, allergic to fame, reluctant to overexposure—in fact, she doesn’t have Instagram, at least officially—and aware of the importance of disappearing from the public eye from time to time. With each return, her ability to perform is not only intact but reveals new records.
This 2024 it has returned with force thanks to its Broadway debut. She is the absolute protagonist in the work Mary Jane, written by Pulitzer finalist Amy Herzog and directed by Anne Kauffman. The Canadian puts herself in the shoes of a single mother who takes care of a son with a chronic illness. “I have been looking for a play forever, but casually without any commitment and suddenly this appeared, I read it and it captivated me,” she said last September in The New York Times when his return to the stage was announced. The play premiered in April and has already earned her her first nomination at the Tony Awards, in the category of best leading actress.
The double of 2004: ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Noa’s Diary’
It’s been 25 years since McAdams last stood on stage. Theater sparked her interest in acting when she began participating in her school plays. Those experiences encouraged him to train in Theater at the University of York, in his native country. It had barely been 12 months since her graduation when she landed her first big role in the comedy film This is not my body! (2002), with Rob Schneider and Anna Faris. McAdams entered Hollywood through the front door, directly with a leading role. And not only that. Two years later, he shone in two of the most talked-about films of 2004: Bad Girlsconsidered one of the best teen films of all time, and Noa’s diary, an undisputed favorite among the staunchest romantics. Both titles celebrate their twentieth anniversary this year and the fan phenomenon they bring continues to grow.
In Bad Girls, a satire of high school life, brought to life the evil but charismatic Regina George, the popular girl whom everyone admires and hates. The film, scripted by Tina Fey and co-starring alongside Lindsay Lohan, a star of the time, performed at the box office and was a pleasant surprise for critics, who highlighted the performance of Rachel McAdams in a role for which she is still asked about in the few interviews he grants. The industry does not want to give up the pull that the film still generates. In 2018, the musical version landed on Broadway, with the young actress Reneé Rapp in the role of Regina George. It didn’t disappoint. And last January the new version of Bad Girls, although Rachel McAdams’ expected cameo did not occur. “Tub [Fey] and I thought about some ideas but in the end it was difficult to make it work,” she explained in Variety.
To the disappointment of her fans, she also did not appear in the Walmart advertisement that brought together the former cast – Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert – on the occasion of Black Friday 2023. “I don’t know, I wasn’t very excited about making an announcement if I’m honest . A movie sounds good but I had never made any announcements (…) Also, I didn’t know that all of them were going to participate. Of course, I would always love to be part of a meeting of Bad Girls and spend some time with my plastic [así se denomina a las amigas de Regina George en la película], but I found out about that later,” the actress justified. Where she could be seen was in a special appearance on the program Saturday Night Livewhere he introduced Renée Rapp to promote the new film Bad Girls.
Very different was his role in Noa’s diary, the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. McAdams premiered in the romantic comedy category with the character of Allie, a young woman from a wealthy North Carolina family who lives a passionate romance with Noa Calhoun, played by Ryan Gosling. Despite the chemistry that both show on screen (they starred in one of the most memorable kisses in the history of cinema), the truth is that during filming they did not get along very well. Nick Cassavetes, the film’s director, had to intervene and calm the waters in a closed-door meeting. However, at the end of the project they began a relationship that lasted from 2005 to 2007. Two decades later, fate wanted that a few meters from the stage where McAdams made his Broadway debut, the theatrical adaptation of Noa’s diary.
Say “no” to Hollywood
Those early 2000s were great media exposure for the actress. The press came to refer to her as “the new Julia Roberts”: the projects, the red carpets, the interviews and photo shoots accumulated. In an unbeatable professional moment, McAdams said enough. An anecdote illustrates how clear things were for the Canadian, despite her youth. In 2006, she was going to star on a cover of the magazine Vanity Fair along with two other promising actresses: Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson. Upon arriving at the set she learned that for the photo shoot, captured by the renowned Annie Leibovitz, she had to get completely naked. She rejected his cover, which went ahead without her and was parodied years later on a controversial men’s cover.
He also did not accept to participate in some of the blockbusters of the moment, such as The Devil Wears Pradathe James Bond movie Royal Casino either Hombre de Hierro, among other. “I felt guilty for not taking advantage of the opportunity they were giving me because I knew I was in a very fortunate position. But I also knew that it was not the best fit for my personality nor what I needed to stay sane,” she recently confessed in an interview on Bustle about those years of absence. That first retirement lasted for more than a year, until 2008, when he released the film The marriage game, alongside Pierce Brosnan. At the turn of the decade she enjoyed several notable successes. In 2011 she worked under Woody Allen in Midnight in Paris and in 2013 he starred in the box office hit a matter of time. His filmography also increased during this period with several minor titles and some supporting roles, such as the saga Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr.
An Oscar nomination and another intentional absence
In 2015, more than a decade after her rise to stardom, the interpreter’s other great professional moment arrived. McAdams was part of what was the movie of the year, spotlightinspired by the true story of how the newspaper’s investigative team Boston Globe uncovered the Boston Archdiocese’s cover-up of cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by priests over decades. She put herself in the shoes of journalist Sacha Pfeiffer and got her first Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, an award that finally fell into the hands of the Swede Alicia Vikander. That same year, McAdams returned to television, where she had not worked since the beginning, as detective Ani Bezzerides in the second season of the acclaimed HBO fiction True Detective.
Present in two of the most coveted and valued projects of the year, he stood out again, but once again he chose to maintain a low profile, spacing out his projects and limiting his public appearances to a minimum. He accepted the irresistible call of Marvel and in 2016 he premiered Doctor Strange, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Afterwards, his professional agenda was almost completely cleared. In 2017 she released a film (Disobedience), another in 2018 (game night) and in 2019, none. In 2020 she worked with Netflix for the first time in a musical comedy with Will Ferrell titled Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. With a calm pace of work, far from the whirlwind experienced in his youth, among his latest projects is the second part of Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness, and specific appearances in two series, Marvel fiction What would happen if…? (with his voice in off) and comedy Dave, where she plays herself. At the moment, there are no more projects on the horizon. The fame intrinsic to her profession is not something easy for the actress to manage. She herself once commented that “in theater school they don’t teach you how to deal with it.” [la fama]. There is no book that explains how to live with it.”
Off screen, he has decided to dedicate time to family, his great cornerstone. After several famous couples (Ryan Gosling and fellow actor Michael Sheen, whom she met in Midnight in Paris), in 2016 she began a relationship with screenwriter Jamie Linden. In 2018 they had their first child and two years later a girl arrived. Since she became a mother, McAdams has defended motherhood without complexes or pressure. In fact, she did not hesitate to pose with a breast pump on a commented cover a few years ago. Now, her motherhood also sneaks into the scripts she chooses.
In addition to the Broadway play with which she has once again made headlines, last year she became the mother of a preteen in Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret, adaptation of the classic by the writer Judy Blume. For this last film she had her sister, the professional makeup artist Kayleen McAdams, with whom she has been working for years (among her clients there are also stars like Sofía Vergara or the very young Sadie Sink), and they both brought their children to the filming. The film, released in April 2023 and available on Movistar Plus+, was one of the best films of last year for many critics and some voices demanded a new Oscar nomination for McAdams. The truth is that despite her extensive career, her participation in titles that are already part of history, the approval of critics and the ability to adapt to all kinds of characters, Rachel McAdams does not accumulate great awards. outside the game hollywood and its twisted rules, you probably don’t care too much about that.
