“Mean Girls” star Rachel McAdams has revealed that she turned down starring roles in a bevy of major films following the runaway success of the 2004 teen cult classic.
Thanks in large part to her role as high school clique leader Regina George, McAdams became one of the white-hot actresses of the mid-aughts.
In the months and years that followed “Mean Girls,” the Canadian actress also starred in “The Notebook,” “Wedding Crashers” and “The Family Stone.” However, she went on to turn down five big films between 2006 and 2008, instead opting to spend time with family in her native Ontario.
In a new profile by Bustle, McAdams said she took a pass on “Mission: Impossible III,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Casino Royale,” “Iron Man,” and “Get Smart.” Each film became a box office blockbuster with huge star power behind it. (The roles in “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Get Smart” both went to Anne Hathaway.)
“There’s certainly things like ‘I wish I’d done that,’” she said in the interview. “[But] I step back and go, ‘That was the right person for that.’”
The 44-year-old actress explained: “I felt guilty for not capitalizing on the opportunity that I was being given, because I knew I was in such a lucky spot. 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.”
The decision not to choose those films, however, didn’t put a dent in McAdams’ Hollywood marketability. She went on to star in movies such as Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes,” Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” Academy Award-winner “Spotlight” and 2016′s “Doctor Strange.” She also made a return to TV for the second season of HBO’s “True Detective.”
As far as all of the chatter surrounding the “Mean Girls” musical movie adaptation, the mother of two — who posed for Bustle’s photo shoot with unshaved armpits — has mixed feelings.
“I don’t see a way to shoehorn us in,” she said about appearing in the forthcoming film. “If Tina [Fey] can figure it out, I’m there, for sure.”
McAdams currently stars in “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” based on Judy Blume’s 1970 bestselling book. The film arrives in theaters April 28.
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