Rachel McAdams

• 1. Introduction

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  For the March 2006 Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair, the Canadian actress Rachel McAdams was invited to share a cover with Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley. She arrived at the photo set and discovered that the session was a nude one. She declined and left. Nobody had warned her beforehand, and she later parted ways with the publicist who had kept that from her. Knightley recalled the moment this way: "Quite early on Rachel just said, 'No, I'm not into that.' She's a lovely girl, and I really respect her for doing that." Asked about it in 2008, McAdams had no regrets.

  The timing makes the refusal remarkable. The press was calling her the next Julia Roberts and Hollywood's new "it girl." Few people turn away a magazine cover at that point in a career. So where did this young woman come from, and why did saying no come so easily? What had she done to earn that attention in the first place? And what does an actress do after walking away from the spotlight at its brightest?

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• 2. Before Hollywood

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  Rachel Anne McAdams was born on the 17th of November 1978 in London, Ontario. Her mother, Sandra, worked as a nurse, and her father, Lance McAdams, drove a truck. She grew up in St. Thomas as the eldest of three children, with a younger sister who became a make-up artist and a younger brother who became a personal trainer. Her mother's side of the family reaches back to James Gray, her fifth great-grandfather, who fought as a Loyalist Ranger in the American Revolution and fled to Upper Canada after the Battles of Saratoga.

  At four years old, McAdams began figure skating. When she was nine, she was offered the chance to move to Toronto for pair skating training, and she turned it down. She kept competing until she was 18 and won regional awards. She later said that skating taught her to be "in tune" with her body, which helped when she moved into acting.

  Myrtle Street Public School and Central Elgin Collegiate Institute filled her school years. She has admitted she disliked academic work and often pretended to be sick to stay home. Even so, she was busy. She played volleyball, badminton and soccer, sat on the student council, joined the Crime Stoppers program and served on the Peer Helping Team. For three summers, she worked at a McDonald's restaurant.

  By the age of seven, McAdams was drawn to performing. Her parents never discouraged her, but they did not, in her words, "go out and find me an agent." She attended Disney and William Shakespeare summer camps as a child. From age 12, she took part in Original Kids Theatre Company productions in London, and in her late teens she directed children's theatre herself. She also won a performance award at the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. Two teachers, one for English and one for drama, inspired her in grades 11 and 12. She had planned to study cultural studies at the University of Western Ontario until her drama teacher persuaded her that acting could be a real profession.

  York University offered a four-year theatre program, and McAdams graduated from it in 2001 with an honours Bachelor of Fine Arts. During her studies, she worked with the Toronto-based Necessary Angel Theatre Company. That same year she made her television debut as Beth Swanson in the MTV pilot Shotgun Love Dolls, which was filmed during March break at York. Her Canadian film debut was the comedy My Name Is Tanino, an Italian-Canadian co-production shot in Sicily. She was 22, and it was her first time on an airplane. She later earned a Genie Award nomination for the drama Perfect Pie.

  In 2002, McAdams made her Hollywood film debut in The Hot Chick, alongside Rob Schneider and Anna Faris. She played a catty high school student who swaps bodies with Schneider's character, a small-time criminal. McAdams has called the film a "huge milestone." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times judged her a young actress of much promise. She then went home to Canada to play Kate McNab in Slings and Arrows, a comedy mini-series about backstage theatre life at the fictional New Burbage Shakespearean Festival. The show earned her two Gemini Award nominations and one win. Her success in the United States was the reason she was written out of its second season.

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• 3. Breakout Years

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  McAdams was 24 when she was cast as Regina George, the queen bee of the 2004 comedy Mean Girls. The film was based on Rosalind Wiseman's book Queen Bees and Wannabes, and her co-stars included Lindsay Lohan, Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried. For the part, she modelled her character on Alec Baldwin's performance in the 1992 drama Glengarry Glen Ross. Mike Clark of USA Today praised her comic flair, and Jenny McCartney of The Daily Telegraph found her "delightfully hateful." The film grossed $129 million worldwide and earned McAdams two MTV Movie Awards. Entertainment Weekly later placed it at No. 12 among the greatest high school movies.

  Tina Fey co-starred in Mean Girls and wrote its screenplay, and she credits McAdams with a lesson about screen acting. Fey said she learned to work for the camera rather than an audience: "She's a film actor. She's not pushing. And so I kind of learned that lesson from watching her."

  Later in 2004, McAdams appeared opposite fellow Canadian Ryan Gosling in The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks. She played Allie Hamilton, a wealthy Southern belle who falls in a forbidden love with Noah Calhoun, a poor labourer. Before filming, she spent time in Charleston, South Carolina, to learn the accent, and she took ballet and etiquette classes. Filming ran from late 2002 to early 2003.

  Off camera, the leads clashed. Gosling and McAdams became romantically involved in 2005, but on set they had a combative relationship. "We inspired the worst in each other," Gosling has said. At one point he asked the director, Nick Cassavetes, to "bring somebody else in for my off-camera shot" because he felt McAdams was being uncooperative. Critics were won over anyway. Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised the "spontaneous and combustible" performances, and Roger Ebert admired the "beauty and clarity" of hers. Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune called her "a real discovery." The film grossed over $115 million worldwide, and McAdams won an MTV Movie Award and four Teen Choice Awards. Entertainment Weekly says it contains the all-time best movie kiss. "I'm so grateful to have a film that people respond to in that way," McAdams told Elle in 2011. "It was a big deal."

  Three more films followed in 2005. In Wedding Crashers, she played the daughter of an influential politician, caught in a love triangle with characters played by Owen Wilson and Bradley Cooper. Vince Vaughn also starred. To prepare for emotional scenes, she listened repeatedly to Fleetwood Mac's 1975 song "Landslide." Wilson said it made her cry immediately, "like turning on a faucet." She also trained for a sailing certification because her character was an accomplished sailor. The film cost $40 million to make and grossed over $285 million worldwide.

  Wes Craven directed her in the thriller Red Eye, opposite Cillian Murphy. McAdams played a young hotel manager held captive on a flight, and Craven has said she was the only actress he considered. She liked that her character was relatable, not "some sweaty, tank-top-wearing, Uzi-carrying super woman." Made for $26 million, the film earned over $95 million. Her third release that year was The Family Stone, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Keaton, in which she played a dishevelled, sardonic sister. She said it was never about line counts for her but about the people she got to work with. That film cost $18 million and grossed over $92 million.

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• 4. Stepping Back

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  Between 2006 and 2007, McAdams took a break from film. "There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, a lot of voices around me, and I wanted to step away so I could hear my own voice again," she said in 2013. She added, "Truthfully, I never really wanted to be a big movie star. I never even wanted to work outside of Canada, or outside of the theatre." During the pause, she turned down roles in The Devil Wears Prada, Casino Royale and Mission: Impossible III, all from 2006, and in Iron Man and Get Smart, both from 2008.

  She was not idle. In February 2006, she gave a one-off stage appearance in The Vagina Monologues at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto, raising funds for V-Day. That year she also received a Rising Star Award nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and hosted the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement.

  Married Life, a 1940s film noir released in 2008, brought her back. She played Kay Nesbitt, a young widow who wins the affections of older characters played by Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper. To prepare, she studied old films, especially those of Kim Novak. The shoot re-energized her and made her eager to work more often. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly called her a delightful vision after a two-year intermission. The film had a limited release and grossed just over $2 million against a $12 million budget.

  The Lucky Ones followed, a road trip story about three soldiers back from the Iraq War, with Tim Robbins and Michael Peña. McAdams trained at a real boot camp at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. She later named her character, Colee Dunn, among her favourites. Roger Ebert called the role "her coming of age as an actress." Even so, it grossed just $266,967 worldwide, the lowest of her career as of 2012.

  In 2009, McAdams played Della Frye, an online reporter, in the political thriller State of Play, opposite Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck. For research she visited the offices of The Washington Post and met politicians on Capitol Hill. The film grossed over $87 million. That year she also starred with Eric Bana in The Time Traveler's Wife, based on Audrey Niffenegger's novel. She had fallen "madly in love" with the book but hesitated over playing Clare Abshire, a "character that people have already cast in their heads." Reviews were mixed. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, in an otherwise tepid review, said every scene she was in became truer because of her. The film earned over $101 million.

  Late 2009 brought Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. McAdams played Irene Adler, an antagonist and love interest of the detective, and she welcomed a character described as "her own boss and a real free spirit." A. O. Scott of The New York Times found the character a somewhat cynical commercial contrivance. The film earned over $524 million worldwide.

  Morning Glory, from 2010, was billed as a vehicle for McAdams. She played a television producer trying to rescue a morning show's ratings, with Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford. At first she felt unsuited to it. "I'm not funny," she told the filmmakers, and she suggested they look elsewhere. The director, Roger Michell, held a number of dinners with her and won her over. Keaton has since become a mentor figure to her. The film grossed $58 million on a $40 million budget, and McAdams later voiced disappointment that it found no larger audience.

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• 5. Auteurs and Franchises

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  Woody Allen wrote the part of Inez in Midnight in Paris specifically for McAdams. He had heard glowing reports from his friend Diane Keaton, and he said he was "crazy about Rachel." He wanted to offer her something other than beautiful girls. She played the shrewish fiancée of Owen Wilson's character, Gil. The 2011 film was shot in Paris, an experience she says will always have a great place in her heart. It opened the Cannes Film Festival that year. Critics split on her role, but the film was a triumph. It became Allen's highest-grossing film ever in North America and the most commercially successful independent film of 2011. It earned over $151 million on a $17 million budget.

  Producer Joel Silver explains why her next Sherlock Holmes appearance was small. In A Game of Shadows, McAdams returned as Irene Adler, but the female lead went to Noomi Rapace. Silver said the filmmakers had always intended "a different kind of girl for each movie," as with Bond girls. Persuading McAdams to return in a smaller part was "complicated," he said, since she had hoped for more. Scott Mendelson of The Huffington Post felt she relished the chance to play a full villain. The film grossed over $543 million.

  The Vow, from 2012, paired McAdams with Channing Tatum as a newlywed couple. After a car crash, the wife cannot remember her husband or their marriage. The film is based on a true story. McAdams liked that the story was told through the husband's eyes. Critics praised her warmth, though some wished she had been given better material. The film was financed for $30 million, topped the American box office and grossed over $196 million worldwide. That makes it her biggest hit in a leading role.

  Terrence Malick cast her in To the Wonder, in which she played a horse ranch worker in Oklahoma opposite Ben Affleck. Malick discussed her character in detail and toured the local town with her, pointing out which house she would have grown up in. Brian De Palma then cast her in Passion, an erotic thriller with Noomi Rapace, because he had seen her work in Mean Girls. Reviews of that film were mixed.

  Zooey Deschanel was first slated for McAdams's part in About Time, but she dropped out shortly before filming. McAdams had admired the director Richard Curtis for years and wanted to work with him on what he said would be his final film as a director. Leslie Felperin of Variety praised the "radiant, believable chemistry" between McAdams and her co-star Domhnall Gleeson. The following year, she played opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman in A Most Wanted Man, a John le Carré adaptation directed by Anton Corbijn. Some reviewers faulted her German accent. In late 2014, McAdams received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

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• 6. Critical Acclaim

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  In 2015, McAdams joined Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci in Tom McCarthy's Spotlight, about the child-abuse scandal in Boston's Catholic Church. She played the journalist Sacha Pfeiffer and prepared by spending time with Pfeiffer herself. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and McAdams was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Justin Chang of Variety singled out a scene in which her character gently encourages an abuse survivor to tell his story. He called it a small master class in how listening can become compassion. She also won a Satellite Award and an Independent Spirit Award for the film.

  That same year brought a run of varied work. In Aloha, she played the ex-girlfriend of Bradley Cooper's character, and although the film drew a negative reaction, Wesley Morris of Grantland thought she might be the best actress Cameron Crowe had ever worked with. In the boxing drama Southpaw, she played the wife of Jake Gyllenhaal's character. In Wim Wenders' Every Thing Will Be Fine, she appeared alongside James Franco and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and a Variety critic complained of the thankless love interests she kept being handed. In 2015 she also played Buttercup in a one-off staged LACMA Live Read of The Princess Bride.

  HBO's True Detective gave her a television role in its second season. She played Det. Ani Bezzerides alongside Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell and Taylor Kitsch. Richard Vine of The Guardian called her character "a convincing mess," and McAdams earned a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries.

  In 2016, she voiced the Mother in an animated version of The Little Prince. She also narrated an Audible audiobook of L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. Doctor Strange that year, opposite Benedict Cumberbatch, gave her the role of Christine Palmer, the hero's former medical colleague. Gregory Ellwood of Indiewire felt that she turned a barely sketched part into a captivating three-dimensional character.

  After a year-long absence from the screen, McAdams appeared in the comedy Game Night in 2018, opposite Jason Bateman. She performed some of her own stunt driving in a getaway scene. Glenn Kenny of The New York Times called the film a reminder that she is one of cinema's most accomplished comic actresses. Later that year, she starred opposite Rachel Weisz in Disobedience, a romantic drama directed by Sebastián Lelio and based on Naomi Alderman's novel. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised her work conveying a woman agonizing over her existential situation.

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• 7. Broadway and Beyond

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  In 2020, McAdams co-starred with Will Ferrell in the Netflix musical comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, playing Sigrit Ericksdóttir. In May 2022, she reprised Christine Palmer in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which drew mixed reviews. In April 2023, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., based on Judy Blume's novel, opened to positive reviews. McAdams played Barbara, the mother of the title character. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair wrote that she painted a thorough and compelling picture of a woman of the era.

  In January 2024, McAdams made a cameo on Saturday Night Live, introducing the musical guest Reneé Rapp. She also appeared in a sketch as a look-alike of herself, where the look-alike asked Jacob Elordi for acting advice.

  The 2nd of April 2024 marked a first for her, as performances began of Amy Herzog's play Mary Jane at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. McAdams made her Broadway debut as the title character, a struggling single mother and determined caregiver. Opening night followed on the 23rd of April 2024. Adrian Holden of The Guardian called her performance "magnetic" and the role a perfect fit. Variety noted her projection seemed muted at one performance but praised how she captured a caregiver sitting in the uncertainty of worry. She earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play.

  In 2026, the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoured her with a star. The same year she returned to the big screen in Send Help, a survival horror thriller from director Sam Raimi. McAdams and Dylan O'Brien play an employee and her boss, stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash, with tension rising between them. Michael Phillips of the San Francisco Chronicle called it a showcase for her shape-shifting abilities. The film grossed $64 million in the United States and Canada and $29 million elsewhere, for $94 million worldwide against a $40 million budget. Her leading roles have now brought in over $3.4 billion worldwide.

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• 8. Beyond the Screen

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  In 2007, McAdams and two friends launched an eco-friendly lifestyle website, GreenIsSexy.org, and ran it for five years until 2011. She describes herself as an environmentalist. Her house runs on Bullfrog renewable energy, and in Toronto she travels by bicycle and does not own a car. In Los Angeles she drives, because it is a harder town to cycle in. In the fall of 2005, she volunteered in Biloxi, Mississippi, and in Louisiana, helping clean up after Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, she sat on a judging panel for TreeHugger and Live Earth.

  Her environmental work continued through the next decade. In 2010, she appealed for donations during the Canada for Haiti telethon and took part in Matter of Trust's "hair boom" efforts after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In 2011, she supported Foodstock, a protest against a proposed limestone mega quarry in Melancthon, Ontario. In 2013, she filmed two promotional videos for the Food & Water First Movement, which aims to preserve prime farmland and source water in Ontario. She narrated the 2014 documentary Take Me To The River, about efforts to save iconic rivers. In 2021, she joined a video by Stand.earth calling on British Columbia to stop logging the province's last old growth rainforests.

  Other causes have drawn her too. In 2006, she took part in the "Day Without Immigrants" demonstration in Los Angeles. In 2011, she attended the Occupy Toronto demonstration. In 2013, she volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in her hometown of St. Thomas. She has worked with the Sunshine Foundation of Canada, the Alzheimer's Association, the READ Campaign and United Way of Canada. She also belongs to Represent.Us, an anti-corruption organisation, and sits on its creative council.

  In 2016, McAdams began dating the American screenwriter Jamie Linden. They have a son, born in 2018, and a daughter, born in 2020.

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