READER’S WIFE
TEXT BRET LOVE PHOTO CORBIS OUTLINE
FROM THE NOTEBOOK TO THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, RACHEL MCADAMS REMAINS HOLLYWOOD’S LITERARY LEADING LADY
WANTED: Best-selling novelist with fervent fan base to provide source material for A-list actress’s future film-development projects. Authors and literary agents are encouraged to send all submissions to the attention of R McAdams c/o United Talent Agency, Beverly Hills, California.
OK, so you may not see an advertisement like this in the pages of Variety or The Hollywood Reporter any time soon, but the concept doesn’t seem so far-fetched when you consider Rachel McAdams’s résumé.
The 30-year-old Canadian actress has appeared in nine films since her breakthrough role opposite Lindsay Lohan in 2004’s Mean Girls, a third of which have been based on best-selling books. Unfortunately the truth is, with her last decent box-office hit way back in 2005 (The Family Stone, which earned $92m worldwide), she could seriously use a hit.
Up first is this month’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, an adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s beloved book about handsome librarian Henry DeTamble (played in the film by Aussie actor Eric Bana), who was born with a gene that causes him to travel through time involuntarily. McAdams co-stars as artist Clare Abshire, whose life evolves in a decidedly more sequential fashion and whose passionate love for Henry is continuously tested over time. Filmed largely in McAdams’ native Ontario, the movie has been in the works for years (Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston bought the rights before the book had even been released), and internet message boards were buzzing with speculation about the adaptation’s merits – or lack of – months in advance of its release.
McAdams, coming off a run of disappointing performers including State Of Play, The Lucky Ones and Married Life, is hopeful about the movie’s potential. “I haven’t seen it recently, but I saw a rough cut a long time ago. There’s time travel in it, obviously, and it’s really cool the way that they deal with it. But Robert Schwentke, the director, really explored how you carry on with the love of your life when you have this imposition. I think it’s time for a sweeping romance, because there hasn’t been one for a while.”
THE TIME TRAVELER’S
WIFEIt was her role in another sweeping romance – the adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s novel The Notebook – that initially endeared McAdams to audiences. Released in June of 2004 as a canny alternative to the season’s spate of blokey action thrillers, the film proved a surprising summer sleeper, raking in nearly $100m with its combination of slow-burn Southern romance and three-hankie melodrama. Considering the fact that her other big hit, 2005’s Wedding Crashers, was a romantic comedy, it only seems fair to ask McAdams how she views romance.
“You try to be as practical as you can but my heart always wins the battle with my head,” she admits, like a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet from Pride And Prejudice. “Love takes a lot of time and commitment, and I think it comes down to making a choice you believe in. Once you’ve made that decision, you don’t hold back: it’s everything and the kitchen sink. I don’t know anything about love, but my parents are still very much in love and it takes a lot of work. You have to have passion and a little bit of spit and fire.”
The pressures of fame became real for McAdams over the course of an on-again/off-again relation-ship with her Notebook co-star Ryan Gosling. But she accepts that the opportunities are more than worth the downsides. “There’s a lot of pressure,” she insists, “but it’s very flattering. It’s important for people to think that I’m competent, but you have to go into it selfishly – it’s a little bit dangerous to see yourself the way other people do. I guess I just try to enjoy it and hopefully it’ll all work out.”
Things certainly seem to be working out fine for McAdams, who will follow up The Time Traveler’s Wife by starring opposite Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Yes, it’s another literary effort, this time drawing on the work of Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle (the girl is nothing else if not well read).
SHERLOCK HOLMESThough the film won’t even be released until Christmas, fans have been clamouring for details ever since Ritchie began discussing the project at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. “I didn’t realise how big it was until I stepped on the sets. They were just massive. It’s in true Guy Ritchie fashion, with lots of fighting and explosions. I supposedly play Sherlock’s love interest,” she says with a laugh, “but it’s really Watson!”
Which book she may get inspiration from next is anyone’s bet, but she definitely has a reading list. “I always think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna see everybody on my days off. I’m gonna read so many books…’” With a little luck, one may even be a Jackie Cooper – we can always live in hope!
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