Rachel McAdams

Rachel McAdams
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.63 m)

Rachel McAdams (born October 7, 1976) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles in the Hollywood films Mean Girls, The Notebook and Wedding Crashers, which all proved to be successful at movie theaters.

Biography

Early life

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 half-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 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 Rothenberg's on-camera acting class in Toronto with fellow actors Scott Speedman, Kenneth Mitchell, Polly Shannon and David Sutcliffe.

Career

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.

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.

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. McAdams was anxious to sign on to a script which was "creative" and "different." It was said that Rachel turned down Anne Hathaway's role in The Devil Wears Prada, a role in Mission: Impossible III and the love interest of Daniel Craig in Casino Royale. McAdams eventually returned to acting to do the independent-drama Married Life, which has a limited release date set for November 9, 2007.

Rachel was also rumored to be set to star as the love interest in Iron Man and Katie Holmes's replacement in The Dark Knight as well as playing the role of sexy, femme fatale Agent 99 in Get Smart. However, McAdams stated in an interview in May 2006 that she had no interest to do a big-budget super-hero/action adaptation because of various reasons one including that she had never really taken interest in a film of that sort and that she wanted to sign on to a film mainly because she wanted to do it, not because the salary was high. It was later confirmed that she was offered all three of the roles but politely turned them down. The roles were later taken over by Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man), Anne Hathaway (Get Smart), and the role of "Rachel Dawes" in The Dark Knight will be Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Despite having appeared nude and/or topless in few of her movie scenes, McAdams opted out of a cover shoot for Vanity Fair 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.

McAdams currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Awards and achievements

McAdams received popular acclaim for both roles and was honoured 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 2005.

McAdams was nominated for a Genie Award, the Canadian equivalent of the Academy 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.

Triva

• The rock band Moes Haven released a song called "Rachel McAdams" in 2006.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Shotgun Love Dolls	Beth
	The Famous Jett Jackson	Hannah Grant
2002	Guilt by Association	Danielle
	My Name is Tanino	Sally Garfield
	Perfect Pie	Patsy (age 15)
	The Hot Chick	Jessica Spencer/Clive Maxtone
2003	Slings and Arrows	Kate McNab
2004	Mean Girls	Regina George
	The Notebook	Allie Hamilton
2005	Wedding Crashers	Claire Cleary
	Red Eye	Lisa Reisert
	The Family Stone	Amy Stone
2007	Married Life	Kay
2008	The Return	Collee
TBA	The Time Traveler's Wife	Clare Abshire

External links

• Rachel McAdams at IMDb
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• Rachel McAdams at People.com
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• Rachel McAdams - ELLE