RACHEL MCADAMS Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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RACHEL MCADAMS

Name: Rachel Anne McAdams                                                                 
Born: 17 November 1978 London, Ontario, Canada                                             
                                                                                           
Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. She is                 
known for her roles in the Hollywood films Mean Girls, The Notebook, Wedding               
Crashers and Red Eye.                                                                     
                                                                                           
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 theatre           
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 Myrtle Street             
Public School. 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.                                               
                                                                                           
Rachel McAdams had the titular 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, 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 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 set to star as a reporter in State of Play. Filming was                   
originally scheduled to start in November, but after the film lost its two                 
leading actors, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, the movie has been delayed and will           
start in later January.