Best Known As: Mean Regina in the movie Mean Girls
After only a handful of movie and TV roles, Rachel McAdams made a splash as Regina George, the catty teen villain in the 2004 comedy Mean Girls (starring Lindsay Lohan). A graduate of York University (just outside Toronto), McAdams began her onscreen career in 2000. Mean Girls was the best and last of a string of roles in which McAdams played teen girls; her impressive dramatic turn as Ryan Gosling's lover in The Notebook (2004, starring James Garner) caused her to be hailed as an up-and-comer. By the end of 2005 she had indeed arrived, starring in three high profile movies: Red Eye (with Cillian Murphy), The Wedding Crashers (with Owen Wilson) and The Family Stone (with Sarah Jessica Parker).
McAdams has been romantically linked to Ryan Gosling, her co-star in The Notebook; coincidentally, the two were born in the same hospital.
Career Highlights: State of Play, Married Life, Red Eye
First Major Screen Credit: My Name is Tanino (2001)
Biography
Thin, blonde, and possessing the sort of stylish, model-esque good looks that wouldn't be out of place in the glossy pages of Vogue, actress Rachel McAdams got her start on Canadian television before graduating to Hollywood features. Though McAdams' early screen roles found her specializing in the bitchy teen princess to maximum effect, closer inspection reveals a skilled dramatic actress who no doubt has the talent to move beyond the high-school trappings of such comedies as The Hot Chick and Mean Girls.
Born to a truck driver and a nurse in London, Ontario, Canada, McAdams warmed to the spotlight early on by taking up competitive skating at just four years old. Though she would remain on the ice well into her teens, the toll of constant competition eventually frazzled her nerves, and she soon began gravitating toward the stage. Beginning in summer theater camp at the age of 13, the burgeoning actress' smooth handling of Shakespeare eventually led her to enroll in theater studies at York University. In the years that followed, McAdams' comfort on the stage translated exceptionally well to the screen, and a role as a bulimic teen in the popular Disney series The Famous Jett Jackson found the rising starlet making an impressive small-screen debut. Supporting roles in such television series as Shotgun Love Dolls and made-for-TV features such as Guilt by Association were quick to follow. After climbing the credits to make her feature debut in My Name is Tanino, McAdams was nominated for a Genie award (the Canadian equivalent of an Oscar) for her performance in 2002's Perfect Pie. The film, which cast her as a small-town girl whose best friend makes the big time by becoming a celebrated opera singer, provided McAdams with her breakout role, and she soon set her sights on Hollywood.
Her bags packed for the trip west and stars shining in her eyes, the talented McAdams soon caught the eyes of studio heavies and was cast as a popular but excruciatingly cruel high-school teen who learns a hard lesson in The Hot Chick. McAdams made a move to weekly television in 2003 with a supporting role in Slings and Arrows before once again returning to torment the unpopular crowd in 2004's Mean Girls. A big-screen adaptation of Rosalind Wiseman's popular book Queen Bees and Wannabes, the film was also notable as the screenwriting debut of Saturday Night Live writer/cast member Tina Fey. Moving away from the cruel halls of high school, McAdams next appeared opposite Ryan Gosling in The Notebook, the feature adaptation of author Nicholas Sparks' top-selling novel. A romantic drama concerning a young couple separated by war, The Notebook found McAdams in a notably more sympathetic role. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
McAdams was born in London, Ontario, Canada and grew up in the nearby town of St. Thomas. Her father, Lance, is a truck driver, and her mother, Sandra, is a nurse.[3] 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 the age twelve[4] at a summer theatre camp in St. Thomas, Ontario named Original Kids. When the company extended to a year-round company (and eventually relocated to London, Ontario), she was invited to continue with them. She attended the Myrtle Street Public School[5] and 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 fourth 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.
Career
McAdams played the title role in the film The Hot Chick alongside Rob Schneider, but her career really progressed 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). She was much older than the character she played. McAdams had previously appeared in the Canadian television series Slings and Arrows, co-starring 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, with Ryan Gosling, with whom she would later begin an off-screen romance.[6]
McAdam'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 agreed to star in the drama Married Life with Pierce Brosnan and Patricia Clarkson. She turned down the role of Bond girl "Vesper Lynd" in the James Bond film Casino Royale. She stated in an interview in May 2006 that she did not want to star in a big-budget action film because she wanted to pursue other projects.
Despite having appeared nude in The Notebook, 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.[8]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.
In April 2009, she was awarded the Female Star of The Year by ShoWest.
Personal life
McAdams dated actor Ryan Gosling, whom she had met during the making of The Notebook, but the couple broke up in February of 2007.[10][11] McAdams and Gosling were later seen embracing each other at a restaurant near her Toronto home.[12] In December 2008, it was reported that they remain friends.[13]
In January 2009, it was revealed that McAdams was dating Josh Lucas after they were spotted together at the U.S. Inauguration parties.[14]
