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Rachel McAdams - Biography |
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McAdams was born in London, Ontario
and grew up in nearby St. Thomas. Her father, Lance, is a truck driver,
and her mother, Sandra, is a nurse. She has a younger brother, Daniel, and
a younger sister, Kayleen. She took up competitive figure skating at the
age of four and acting at age thirteen at a summer theater camp in London,
Ontario named Original Kids. When the company extended to a year-round
company, she was invited to continue with them. She attended the
publicly-funded secondary school Central Elgin Collegiate Institute in St.
Thomas from grade nine to OAC and starred in the Gay-Award-winning student
production I Live in a Little Town. Later she graduated from York
University in Toronto with Honours and a BFA degree in Theatre. During her
senior year at York, she played a child in The Piper – a workshop led by a
creative team from Toronto's Necessary Angel Theatre Company. She also
attended Original Kids Theatre Company in London, Ontario, as well as
David Rotenberg's on-camera acting class in Toronto with fellow actors
Scott Speedman, Kenneth Mitchell, Polly Shannon and David Sutcliffe.
Rachel McAdams had a large role in the film The Hot Chick, alongside Rob
Schneider, but her career really took off when she starred as Regina
George, the "queen-bee" in 2004's Mean Girls. McAdams was told to partly
model the character of Regina George after Alec Baldwin's performance in
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). McAdams had previously appeared in the
Canadian television series Slings and Arrows, alongside Paul Gross. She
played a main role in the first season, but due to her rising stardom was
written out of the second season, appearing in only the first episode. She
followed Mean Girls with the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel The
Notebook, alongside Ryan Gosling, with whom she would later begin an
off-screen romance. They broke up in 2007.
In 2005, she played Owen Wilson's love interest in Wedding Crashers and
then starred in the suspense thriller Red Eye as Lisa Reisert. She played
a young woman held captive aboard a red-eye flight by criminal-for-hire
and assassin Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy). Her most recent role was in
the comedy The Family Stone where she starred in an ensemble cast
alongside Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot
Mulroney, Luke Wilson, Brian J. White and Claire Danes. McAdams auditioned
for the role of "Sue Storm" in Fantastic Four (film), and she almost got
it, but lost out to Jessica Alba at the last minute.
Rachel's career slowed down in 2006. She was originally signed on as the
female lead in The Last Kiss but had to drop out due to scheduling
conflicts, and the role was given to Jacinda Barrett. She decided to take
a year off from acting, to spend time with friends and family. McAdams
then signed on to star in the drama Married Life (film) across Pierce
Brosnan and Patricia Clarkson. She turned down the role of bond girl
"Vesper Lynd" in the James Bond film Casino Royale. McAdams was also
in-talks to star in Iron Man and The Dark Knight, but she declined both
roles. She stated in an interview sometime in May 2006 that she didn't
want to star in a big-budget action film because she wanted to pursue
other projects.
Despite having appeared nude or topless in a few of her movie scenes,
McAdams opted out of a cover shoot for Vanity Fair — in which she was to
appear alongside two other young Hollywood actresses, Scarlett Johansson
and Keira Knightley — upon finding out it was to be nude. Tom Ford,
artistic director for the cover, instead appeared with them. When McAdams
appeared on set and discovered it was nude, she politely declined,
according to Knightley.
She is currently in final-negotiations to join Brad Pitt, Edward Norton,
and Helen Mirren, in the drama State of Play, which will start filming
during the first week of November. McAdams is going to film both movies
back-to-back.
McAdams currently lives in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
McAdams received popular acclaim for both roles and was honored for her
work, most recently a record number of five nominations and three wins at
the MTV Movie Awards in 2005. McAdams beat competition including Beyoncé
Knowles, Jessica Alba, and Jessica Simpson. She was named #14 on the Maxim
magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list and #17 in the 2006 Hot 100 issue. In
December 2005, she was #1 on MuchMusic's "Who To Do: 20 Sexiest Girls"
list. McAdams was also voted the #10 on FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World
during that same year.
McAdams was nominated for a Genie Award for her role in Perfect Pie. She
was also nominated for the BAFTA's Orange Rising Star award which
acknowledges the new talents in the acting industry. The award went to
James McAvoy.
She hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's 2006
Scientific and Technical Awards. McAdams received a Civic Award for her
contribution to culture from the city of St. Thomas in 2006. |
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Rachel McAdams - Personal Quotes |
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"As strange as movie making
is, doing love scenes for the first time with someone you've never
even said hello to does work in terms of having a fresh quality to a
relationship."
"It takes a lot of time, commitment and a choice. I've chosen this
path, but it's not to say I'm not open to love or whatever comes my
way. You never close doors."
"The craziest thing I've ever done to get a guy's attention? I admit
I stalked someone. I showed up at a restaurant where I knew the guy
worked, and we were actually good friends and had lost touch, and I
pretended that I didn't know he worked there. And then ran into him
and, "Oh my God, you work here? I had no idea." It's the most
manipulative thing I've done in my entire life, but it all worked
out very well, so I have no regrets."
"Yeah. I still live in Canada, so it's not quite the same. And when
I'm in L.A., I'm in a car; you don't have the contact with the
public. It's not so bad. It's still pretty much the same. I still
feel pretty normal-ish."
"The most romantic thing, a lovely boy bought me a dress once. He
got my measurements, actually they were from The Notebook (2004) and
I had them sitting somewhere, and he found them and bought me this
dress, tailor-made, this beautiful little black cocktail dress. And
I thought that was very, very classy."
"I want to try a lot of things that I haven't tried. You know, I did
a thriller (Red Eye (2005)) after this, because it was so different
and it was a genre I hadn't worked in yet. Then I did a beautiful
family ensemble drama. And next? I don't know. I might go off to do
a small independent in New York. I'm not sure. The quality of
material is important but, basically, I'm open to anything. I like
to stay open to anything."
"A friend of mine had this great theory about the "Teletubbies"
(1997), that it's preparing us for being mindless. And getting us
ready for living in an underground world. When they build the
underground world because we can no longer breathe the air that it
will look like Teletubbie land."
"I don't know, I like to go on really different types of dates.
Going someplace new or some new part of the city, something that's
not your average thing. Something where you just go have an
adventure together."
"I guess you have to be really open to your acting partners and
believe in the story."
"I have a certain curiosity for life that drives me and propels me
forward."
"I once made a (it was supposed to be a 30-minute) bean salad that
took me like 6 hours."
"I want to work with great directors and try not to put too much
pressure on myself and just read things for the story and recognize
when I'm drawn to something for the right reasons and try to
maintain some sanity."
"I've discovered as I've grown up that life is far more complicated
than you think it is when you're a kid. It isn't just a
straight-forward fairytale."
"I've sort of heard that "it" girl thing, but not really. Hearing it
from a few people doesn't solidify it in my mind and I wouldn't know
how to solidify that title. It's so elusive and what does it mean, I
don't know?"
"I'll put on a punk rock T-shirt, a '50s style skirt, and a pair of
flip-flops. I like to mesh a whole bunch of things together."
"I'm a sucker for those sweeping love stories. When I read the
script (The Notebook (2004)), I couldn't stop crying! I just had
such a powerful, instantaneous reaction - it was written so well."
"I was not popular in high school, I know every actress says that,
but really, I was a big geek."
"Paramount sent them nine-foot-high (theater lobby) cutouts of me.
They say, "You don't have to come home, we've got you in every room
of the house!"
"Most of the time, people will just pass me by, or if they do
realize, they'll say something like, "My girlfriend said that was
you, but I didn't believe her."
"I did (training in) tennis, ballet, swing dancing, piano, art class
and etiquette. I also did French dialect, but then it was mixing me
up with my Southern dialect, so we stuck to Southern!" |
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Rachel McAdams - Filmography |
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State of Play (2008) ....
Della Jones
The Time Traveler's Wife (2008) .... Clare Abshire
The Lucky Ones (2007) .... Collee
Married Life (2007) .... Kay
The Family Stone (2005) .... Amy Stone
Red Eye (2005) .... Lisa Reisert
Wedding Crashers (2005) .... Claire Cleary
"Slings and Arrows" .... Kate McNab (7 episodes, 2003-2005)
- Season's End (2005) TV Episode .... Kate McNab
- Playing the Swan (2003) TV Episode .... Kate McNab
- Mirror up to Nature (2003) TV Episode .... Kate McNab
- Outrageous Fortune (2003) TV Episode .... Kate McNab
- Madness in Great Ones (2003) TV Episode .... Kate McNab
(2 more)
The Notebook (2004) .... Allie Hamilton
Mean Girls (2004) .... Regina George
The Hot Chick (2002) .... Jessica Spencer / Clive
Perfect Pie (2002) .... Patsy (age 15)
... aka Voie du destin, La (Canada: French title)
My Name Is Tanino (2002) .... Sally Garfield
Guilt by Association (2002) (TV) .... Danielle
... aka Coupable par amour (Canada: French title)
"Earth: Final Conflict" .... Christine Bickwell (1 episode, 2002)
... aka EFC (USA: promotional abbreviation)
... aka Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict (USA: complete
title)
... aka Invasion planète Terre (Canada: French title)
... aka Mission Erde: Sie sind unter uns (Germany)
- Atavus High (2002) TV Episode (as Rachel MacAdams) .... Christine
Bickwell
"The Famous Jett Jackson" .... Hannah Grant (1 episode, 2001)
- Food for Thought (2001) TV Episode .... Hannah Grant
Shotgun Love Dolls (2001) (TV) .... Beth |
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Rachel McAdams - Related Links |
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Wikipedia: Rachel McAdams
YouTube: Rachel McAdams
Rachel McAdams at Celebs, Inc.
Rachel McAdams at Babemania.com
Top Celebrities Sites:
The Celebrity
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