Nicholas Hoult recently made headlines for revealing he lost roles in “The Batman,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Top Gun: Maverick” in a row, but that’s nothing compared to the handful of A-list projects Rachel McAdams consecutively turned down in the mid aughts. As revealed in her new Bustle profile, McAdams turned down offers for “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Casino Royale,” “Mission: Impossible III,” “Iron Man” and “Get Smart” in the two-year period where she moved back to Canada following a rise in Hollywood with “Mean Girls” and “The Notebook.”
“There’s certainly things like ‘I wish I’d done that,’” McAdams said. “[But] I step back and go, ‘That was the right person for that.’”
All five movies which McAdams rejected, released between 2006 and 2008, ended up being box office hits, with “Casino Royale” reigniting the Bond franchise with Daniel Craig in the role (presumably McAdams was up for Eva Green’s role) and the first “Iron Man” launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe. McAdams waited to enter the superhero universe until 2016’s “Doctor Strange” and reprised the role of Dr. Christine Palmer in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
“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 these films and taking a two-year break from Hollywood as her career was surging. “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.”
McAdams harbors no regrets and many of her early films such as “Mean Girls” and “The Notebook” remain classics. “Mean Girls” is currently getting the musical treatment for a new film based on Tina Fey’s Tony-winning Broadway adaptation. Reneé Rapp is stepping into the shoes of McAdams’ character Regina George after playing the part on Broadway.
“I don’t see a way to shoehorn us in,” McAdams said about cameoing in the musical film. “If Tina [Fey] can figure it out, I’m there, for sure.”
McAdams’ next feature is the Judy Blume adaptation “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” opening in theaters April 28 from Lionsgate.
McAdams has these interactions often, as the interest in her early career films has never waned. Especially as Mean Girls enters production on its third iteration: a big screen adaptation of the movie’s musical treatment. (“I don’t see a way to shoehorn us in,” she says. But “if Tina [Fey] can figure it out, I’m there, for sure.”)
“There’s certainly things like ‘I wish I’d done that.’” But the success of those projects, she says, makes her think twice about her potential casting. “I step back and go, ‘That was the right person for that.’”
Of what ultimately became a two-year break, McAdams says, “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.” Not that she would have articulated it that way at the time. “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.”