Rachel McAdams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rachel McAdams

Born October 7, 1978 (age 28)[1]
London, Ontario
Notable roles Regina George in Mean Girls
Allie Hamilton in The Notebook
Claire Cleary in Wedding Crashers

Rachel McAdams (born October 7, 1978[1]) is a Canadian actress. She is noted for her Hollywood film performances of Mean Girls (2004), The Notebook (2004) and Wedding Crashers (2005), which all proved to be successful at movie theaters.

Contents

Rachel 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 younger half-sister, Kayleen.

At the age of four, she took up competitive figure skating. She took up acting at age thirteen at a summer theater camp. When the company extended to a year-round company, she was invited to continue with them. She attended 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.

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 as well as the bond girl "Vesper Lynd" in the much anticipated Bond film Casino Royale, both were box-office smash hits. 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, Anne Hathaway, and the role of "Rachel Dawes" is rumored to have Maggie Gyllenhaal play the part.

Despite having appeared nude and/or topless in few of her movie scenes, McAdams abruptly 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.

According to Elle magazine, she turned down parts in Mission: Impossible III and Casino Royale, as well the role that went to Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada.[1]

McAdams currently lives in Toronto. She is a former vegetarian, and is currently dating her The Notebook co-star Ryan Gosling. Both were born in St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario.

It has been stated for a long time, that Rachel was born on October 7, 1976, which would make her 30 years of age, but her mother came out in early 2007, and said, that Rachel wasn’t born on October 7, 1976, but on October 7, 1978, which makes her 28, not 30.

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 100issue. 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.

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 Time Traveler's Wife Clare Abshire
2008 The Return Collee

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Persondata
NAME McAdams, Rachel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Canadian actress
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1978
PLACE OF BIRTH London, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.