Rachel McAdams

The Discipline of the Ice and Her Sudden Rise

Rachel McAdams competed in figure skating until the age of 18. This sport on ice built a work ethic that she later brought to the film sets in Toronto and Vancouver.

In 2004, American mainstream cinema found in her a face capable of carrying two opposite registers within just a few months. First she played the antagonist in Mean Girls, and shortly after she starred in the romantic drama The Notebook.

The film's worldwide box office exceeded $115 million on a modest budget.

And audiences became obsessed with her.

The press was desperately hunting for America's new girlfriend, but McAdams had no interest in fulfilling that unspoken contract with the industry.

Breaking Into the Hollywood Machine

At the peak of her popularity, she decided she needed to go home to Canada. Between 2006 and 2007, she turned down leading roles in The Devil Wears Prada, Casino Royale and Mission: Impossible III.

Industry insiders couldn't understand why a young actress would turn down blank-check offers from major studios. But she preferred to bike around Toronto and work on her own eco-focused website.

It was a necessary break.

She returned in 2009 with Sherlock Holmes under the direction of Guy Ritchie. On that shoot she shared the screen with Robert Downey Jr., and the movie grossed more than $524 million worldwide.

Maturity in Investigative Cinema

Critical acclaim came in a big way thanks to her role in Spotlight in 2015. She played journalist Sacha Pfeiffer in a true story about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Boston.

Her performance earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2016. She didn't take home the statuette, but the film won Best Picture that same year.

From then on, her choices became more selective. In 2017 she shot Disobedience alongside Rachel Weisz and explored much denser themes far removed from the usual commercial circuit.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2023 she took part in the film adaptation of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, playing Barbara Simon. For this role she received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2024 she made her Broadway debut in Amy Herzog's play Mary Jane. The production played at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and earned a Tony Award nomination for her role as a caregiving mother.

The production closed in June of that same year after 87 performances.