Rachel McAdams returns to theaters later this month with “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” It’s a significant role for the actress and one she wanted to do. She can’t say the same for some of the huge movies she turned down in the mid-2000s, some of which are the decade’s biggest films.
Variety reports (via a new Bustle profile on McAdams) that the actress revealed she turned down five major roles in a two-year period as her Hollywood star ascended. The films? The “James Bond” reboot “Casino Royale,” (where she would’ve ostensibly played Eva Green‘s role), “Iron Man” (presumably in Gwyneth Paltrow‘s), “Mission: Impossible 3,” “Get Smart,” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” Instead of accepting those roles, McAdams instead returned to Canada for two years after the success of “Mean Girls,” “The Notebook,” and “Wedding Crashers.”
“There’s certainly things like ‘I wish I’d done that,’” McAdams said about her choices back then. “[But] I step back and go, ‘That was the right person for that.’” And while McAdams did what was right for her personally during that period between 2006-2008, she still ended up in the MCU later on, just not in the film that kicked off the mega-franchise. She plays Dr. Christine Palmer in the two “Doctor Strange” movies from 2016 and 2022, respectively.
“I felt guilty for not capitalizing on the opportunity that I was being given, because I knew I was in such a lucky spot,” McAdams said about turning down all five films are her career reached new heights. “But I also knew it wasn’t quite jiving with my personality and what I needed to stay sane. There were definitely some anxious moments of wondering if I was just throwing it all away, and why was I doing that? It’s taken years to understand what I intuitively was doing.”
Of course, McAdam’s brief hiatus didn’t slow down her career at all. After she returned to Hollywood, she starred in big-budget successes like Guy Ritchie‘s two “Sherlock Holmes” films, worked with auteurs like Brian De Palma and Terrence Malick, and starred in the Oscar Best Picture-winning 2015 film “Spotlight,” among others. And fans still see McAdams early role in “Mean Girls” as Regina George as one of her finest performences, even if she likely won’t be in the upcoming musical film based on the Broadway play. “I don’t see a way to shoehorn us in,” McAdams said about a possible cameo. “If Tina [Fey] can figure it out, I’m there, for sure.”
In the meantime, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” hits theaters on April 28. Will it be 2023’s version of “Iron Man,” “Casino Royale,” or even “The Devil Wears Prada”? Likely not, but the role fits where McAdams is now, and she couldn’t be happier about that. Watch a trailer for that film below.
