2001–2003: Early work In 2001, McAdams made her television debut in the
MTV pilot
Shotgun Love Dolls as Beth Swanson, which was filmed during
March break at York University. McAdams later earned a
Genie Award nomination in Canada for her role in the drama
Perfect Pie. She played a catty high school student who
swaps bodies with Schneider's character, a small-time criminal. Afterwards, McAdams returned to Canada to star as Kate McNab in
Slings and Arrows, a comedy mini-series about backstage theatre life at the fictional New Burbage Shakespearean Festival. She was written out of the second season of the program following her success in the United States.
2004–2005: Breakthrough McAdams's break-out role came in 2004, when she starred in the comedy film
Mean Girls opposite
Lindsay Lohan,
Lacey Chabert, and
Amanda Seyfried, based on
Rosalind Wiseman's book
Queen Bees and Wannabes. McAdams was 24 years old when she was cast as the mean high school
queen bee Regina George, and she modelled her character on
Alec Baldwin's performance in the drama
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). Mike Clark of
USA Today praised her "comic flair" while Jenny McCartney of
The Daily Telegraph found her "delightfully hateful." Mick LaSalle of the
San Francisco Chronicle felt that "McAdams brings glamour and magnetism to Regina, but also the right hint of comic distance." The film grossed $129million worldwide and earned McAdams two
MTV Movie Awards.
Mean Girls later reached No. 12 in an
Entertainment Weekly list of the Greatest Ever High School Movies.
Tina Fey, who co‑starred in the film and wrote the screenplay, has credited McAdams with teaching her how to act in front of a camera rather than an audience: "She's a film actor. She's not pushing. And so I kind of learned that lesson from watching her." '' co-star
Ryan Gosling at the
2005 MTV Movie Awards Later in 2004, McAdams starred opposite fellow Canadian
Ryan Gosling in the romantic drama
The Notebook, based on
Nicholas Sparks'
novel of the same name. She played Allie Hamilton, a wealthy
Southern belle who has a forbidden love affair with Gosling's poor labourer, Noah Calhoun. McAdams spent time in
Charleston, South Carolina, prior to filming to familiarize herself with the Southern accent, and took ballet and
etiquette classes. Although McAdams and Gosling became romantically involved in 2005, they had a combative relationship on set. "We inspired the worst in each other," Gosling has said. "It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way." At one point, Gosling asked the film's director
Nick Cassavetes to "bring somebody else in for my off-camera shot" because he felt McAdams was being uncooperative. while
Roger Ebert was won over by the "beauty and clarity" of McAdams's performance. Michael Wilmington of the
Chicago Tribune declared her "a real discovery" who "infuses young Allie with that radiant, breathlessly winning ingénue grace and charm that breaks hearts". The film grossed over $115million worldwide. McAdams won an MTV Movie Award and four
Teen Choice Awards.
Entertainment Weekly has said that the movie contains the All-Time Best Movie Kiss while the
Los Angeles Times has included a scene from the film in a list of the 50 Classic Movie Kisses.
The Notebook has appeared on many Most Romantic Movies lists. "I'm so grateful to have a film that people respond to in that way", McAdams told
Elle in 2011. "It was a big deal." McAdams listened repeatedly to
Fleetwood Mac's 1975 song "
Landslide" to prepare for emotional scenes, and Wilson has said the song made her cry immediately: "It was like turning on a faucet."
Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times felt McAdams "makes the most of her underdeveloped character" and "grows more appealing with every new role". Brian Lowry of
Variety found her "a beguiling presence" who "actually creates a real character – a rarity for females in one of these
lad-mag escapades". From a production budget of $40million, the film grossed over $285million worldwide. She was drawn to the relatable qualities of her character: "She was not some sweaty, tank-top-wearing,
Uzi-carrying super woman". Robert Koehler of
Variety found her "increasingly impressive" while Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times asserted that "she brings more presence and credibility to her role than is really expected; she acts without betraying the slightest awareness that she's inside a genre. Her performance qualifies her for heavy-duty roles." Upon release, the film, which was made on a budget of $26million, earned over $95million at the worldwide box office. In late 2005, McAdams starred with
Sarah Jessica Parker and
Diane Keaton in the seasonal family comedy-drama
The Family Stone, which gave McAdams an opportunity to play a dishevelled and sardonic sister, rather than the usual "obvious" girlfriend or wife roles. She was eager to work with Keaton and remarked, "It's never about line counts for me. It's about the people I get to work with."
Justin Chang of
Variety noted that "a deglammed but still radiant McAdams proves once again that she's the real deal, delivering a deliciously feisty performance". Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times felt that her "engaging screen presence holds your attention and sympathy despite the handicap presented by her character's personality." The film was a commercial success: it cost $18million to make and grossed over $92million worldwide.
2006–2010: Career hiatus and return At this point in her career, McAdams was hailed as "the next
Julia Roberts" Knightley later recounted, "Quite early on Rachel just said, 'No, I'm not into that.' She's a lovely girl, and I really respect her for doing that." When asked about the incident in 2008, McAdams had "no regrets". McAdams took a break from her film career from 2006 to 2007. "There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, a lot of voices around me, and I wanted to step away so I could hear my own voice again", McAdams said in 2013. "Truthfully, I never really wanted to be a big movie star. I never even wanted to work outside of Canada, or outside of the theatre." During that period, McAdams turned down roles in the films
The Devil Wears Prada (2006),
Casino Royale (2006),
Mission: Impossible III (2006),
Iron Man (2008), and
Get Smart (2008). In February 2006, she made a one-off stage appearance in
The Vagina Monologues at
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto to raise funds for
V-Day. That same year, McAdams received a
Rising Star Award nomination from the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts and hosted the
Academy Awards for Technical Achievement. McAdams returned to her film career in 2008. She starred with
Pierce Brosnan and
Chris Cooper in the 1940s
film noir Married Life where she played Kay Nesbitt, a young widow who wins the affections of Brosnan and Cooper's older characters. In preparation for the role, McAdams studied old films, particularly those of
Kim Novak. She has said the film shoot re-energized and re-inspired her and made her eager to continue working more often again. Lisa Schwarzbaum of
Entertainment Weekly found McAdams "a particularly delightful vision after her two-year intermission". Todd McCarthy of
Variety criticized her break from the big screen but felt that, despite a performance of "tender feeling", "her natural vivaciousness and spontaneity are straitjacketed" by the film noir format. The film had a
limited release and was a box-office failure. It grossed just over $2million worldwide, failing to recoup its production budget of $12million. Afterwards, McAdams starred with
Tim Robbins and
Michael Peña in the road trip comedy-drama
The Lucky Ones, a story about three
Iraq War soldiers on a brief road trip back in the United States. She trained at a real boot camp, at
Fort Campbell, Kentucky, prior to filming. In 2011, McAdams said that Colee Dunn was "probably one of my favorite characters I've ever played". The film also had a limited release and Laura Kern of
The New York Times found her "luminous as always" while Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times hailed the performance as "her coming of age as an actress". "Previously she has been seen mostly as a hot chick or an idealized sweetheart", he wrote. "Here she is feisty, vulnerable, plucky, warm, funny ... Watch the poignancy of the scene when she meets her boyfriend's family."
The Lucky Ones is the least commercially successful film of McAdams's career as of 2012, having grossed just $266,967 worldwide. In 2009, McAdams starred with
Russell Crowe,
Helen Mirren and
Ben Affleck in the political thriller
State of Play, based on the
BBC drama television series of the same name. McAdams played Della Frye, an online reporter who investigates a possible conspiracy with Crowe's character, a veteran print journalist. McAdams visited
The Washington Posts offices and met with politicians on
Capitol Hill for her research. Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly felt she was "perfectly cast as an ambitious
wonkette" while Sukhdev Sandhu of
The Daily Telegraph noted that "McAdams, with her lively eyes and large, expressive forehead, holds her own against Crowe. Mercifully, she avoids any temptation to play girly and demure to his grizzled
alpha male." The film grossed over $87million worldwide. Also in 2009, McAdams starred opposite
Eric Bana in the science fiction romantic drama ''
The Time Traveler's Wife'', based on
Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling
novel of the same name. McAdams fell "madly in love" with the novel, but was initially slightly hesitant to accept the role because she felt Clare Abshire, the long-suffering wife, was a "character that people have already cast in their heads".
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone said, "I'd watch the vibrant Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in anything, but ''The Time Traveler's Wife
is pushing it." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times
found her "luminous [yet], sadly, her facility as an actress is mostly wasted." Writing in The Chicago Tribune'',
Michael Phillips, in an otherwise tepid review, said of her performance: "Every scene she's in, even the silly ones, becomes better—truer, often against long odds—because she's in it. Her work feels emotionally spontaneous yet technically precise. She has an unusually easy touch with both comedy and drama, and she never holds a melodramatic moment hostage." The film was a commercial success, earning over $101million worldwide. In late 2009, McAdams starred in the mystery/action-adventure film
Sherlock Holmes with
Robert Downey, Jr. and
Jude Law. She played
Irene Adler, an antagonist and love interest of Downey's title character
Sherlock Holmes, and welcomed the opportunity to play a character who is "her own boss and a real free spirit". Todd McCarthy of
Variety felt her character was "not very well integrated into the rest of the story, a shortcoming the normally resourceful McAdams is unable to do much about".
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times stated, "Ms.McAdams is a perfectly charming actress and performs gamely as the third wheel of this action-bromance tricycle. But Irene feels in this movie more like a somewhat cynical commercial contrivance. She offers a little something for the ladies and also something for the lads, who, much as they may dig fights and explosions and guns and chases, also like girls." The film was a major commercial success, earning over $524million at the worldwide box office. In 2010, McAdams starred with her
The Family Stone co-star Diane Keaton and
Harrison Ford in the comedy
Morning Glory. She played a television producer attempting to improve the poor ratings of a morning television program. The film was billed as a
starring vehicle for McAdams. The film's director
Roger Michell had a number of dinners with McAdams and persuaded her to join the cast. Since working with Keaton, McAdams has described her as a mentor figure.
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times said McAdams "gives the kind of performance we go to the movies for" while Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times felt she played "as lovable a lead as anyone since
Amy Adams in
Junebug" in an otherwise "routine" movie.
Varietys Andrew Barker was impressed by her gift for physical comedy. While Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times felt she "plays her role exceptionally well" and is "effortlessly likable", it called on Hollywood to give her parts "worthy" of her talent. "Ms.McAdams has to rely on her dimples to get by. She does, but she could do better." The film was a modest commercial success, grossing $58million worldwide from a production budget of $40million. McAdams later expressed her disappointment that the film failed to find a larger audience.
2011–2014: Work with auteurs In 2011, McAdams starred in
Woody Allen's fantasy romantic comedy
Midnight in Paris with her
Wedding Crashers co-star Owen Wilson and
Michael Sheen. The film opened the
2011 Cannes Film Festival. McAdams played Inez, the shrewish fiancée of Wilson's character Gil. Allen wrote McAdams' part for her, after hearing "glowing reports" from his friend and her former co-star Diane Keaton. He said that he was "crazy about Rachel" and wanted to give her the opportunity to play something other than "beautiful girls". The film was shot on location in Paris and McAdams has said that the experience "will always have a great place in my heart".
The Guardian criticized that she "has morphed from the sweet thing in
Wedding Crashers to the dream-crushing bitch that, according to American comedies, women become once they ensnare their man".
Richard Corliss of
Time "felt sorry for McAdams, whose usually winning presence is ground into hostile cliché". However, Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times felt she "deftly handles a part that is less amiable than usual for her" and A. O. Scott of
The New York Times found her "superbly speeded-up". It became Allen's highest-grossing film ever in North America and was the most commercially successful independent film of 2011. With a production budget of $17million, the film has grossed over $151million worldwide. McAdams, along with six other members of the cast, received a
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination. Allen won the
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the film itself was nominated for three other Academy Awards, including
Best Picture. McAdams reprised her role as Irene Adler in the mystery/action-adventure sequel
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, but the female lead role was played by
Noomi Rapace.
Joel Silver, the film's producer, has said that "we always intended to have a different kind of girl for each movie" in the vein of
Bond girls. He found it "complicated" to persuade McAdams to return in a smaller role: "She loved being with us, but she hoped to have a bigger role." Scott Mendelson of
The Huffington Post remarked that she "exhibits far more personality and roguish charm in her few moments here than she did in all of the previous film. Freed from the constraints of being the de-facto love interest, McAdams relishes the chance to go full-villain." The film has grossed over $543million worldwide. In 2012, McAdams starred opposite
Channing Tatum in the romantic drama
The Vow, based on a true story. McAdams and Tatum played a newlywed couple who try to rebuild their relationship after a car crash leaves the wife with no recollections of who he is or their marriage. McAdams was drawn to the "roller coaster" faced by her character and found it interesting that the story was told "through the guy's eyes". A. O. Scott of
The New York Times stated that "the dimply and adorable Rachel McAdams" brings "enough physical charm and emotional warmth to distract from the threadbare setting and the paper-thin plot". Joseph Amodio of
Newsday felt that McAdams, "exuding her usual uncanny warmth on-screen", "is the real draw". However, Betsy Sharkey of the
Los Angeles Times felt she was "wasted" in the role: "She is such an appealing actress that it's hard not to wish someone could make better use" of her. Mary Pols of
Time found the film an example of McAdams "coasting" in "unabashedly romantic" movies and asserted that "she's a much more versatile and clever actress" than such projects would suggest. The film, financed for $30million, was a major commercial success and became her biggest box-office hit in a leading role. It topped the U.S. box office and has grossed over $196million worldwide. In 2013, McAdams co-starred opposite Ben Affleck in
Terrence Malick's romantic drama
To the Wonder. McAdams played a horse ranch worker in
Oklahoma and the love interest of Affleck's character. She found Malick to be an "incredibly helpful" director; they discussed her character in detail and he took her on a tour of the local town, pointing out which house she would have grown up in and where she would have attended school. Oliver Lyttelton of
IndieWire noted that "McAdams has the least to do of the principals, but is wonderfully haunted and sad in her brief appearances". Afterwards, McAdams starred in
Brian De Palma's
erotic thriller Passion opposite Noomi Rapace. They played two business executives engaged in a power struggle. De Palma saw McAdams' performance in
Mean Girls and decided to cast her as Christine. The movie was released in selected theatres in the US. Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly noted that McAdams "uses her sexy billboard smile and emphatic delivery to nail a certain type of troublemaker boss who embeds her aggression in pert 'sincerity'" while Robert Abele of the
Los Angeles Times remarked: "McAdams and Rapace are gesturally awkward and wildly miscast—more sorority sisters in a spat than cross-generational power antagonists." In 2013, McAdams starred in
Richard Curtis' romantic comedy-drama
About Time opposite
Domhnall Gleeson.
Zooey Deschanel was originally slated to play McAdams's role but dropped out shortly before filming began. A fan of Curtis for years, McAdams wanted to work with him on what he stated would be his last project as a director. The film was a commercial success at the international box office, and McAdams had a positive reception among critics, with Leslie Felperin of
Variety praising her and Gleeson for their "radiant, believable chemistry" which "keeps the film aloft." The following year, McAdams starred opposite
Philip Seymour Hoffman in an adaptation of
John le Carré's espionage thriller
A Most Wanted Man, directed by
Anton Corbijn. McAdams' attempt at a German accent was criticised by some reviewers. Richard Lawson of
Vanity Fair noted that McAdams had a "little less success with her accent" than her co-star Hoffman but, nonetheless, she "proves as intelligent, soulful, and magnetic a presence as ever". In late 2014, McAdams received a star on
Canada's Walk of Fame.
2015–2018: Critical acclaim In 2015, McAdams starred with
Michael Keaton,
Mark Ruffalo and
Stanley Tucci as journalist
Sacha Pfeiffer in
Tom McCarthy's
Spotlight, a drama about the child-abuse scandal in Boston's Catholic Church. To prepare for her role, McAdams spent time with Pfeiffer. The film garnered critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Though Justin Chang of
Variety felt McAdams imbued her character with "sensitivity and grit", he was nonetheless surprised by her subsequent Academy Award nomination: "[The performance] has the sort of fine-grained subtlety that voters too rarely notice. Take another look at that scene in which she gently, skillfully encourages an abuse survivor to lay bare his most lacerating secrets—a small master class in how the simple act of listening can become a conduit for compassion." For her role, McAdams received nominations for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress,
Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress and
Screen Actors Guild Award nominations in the categories of
Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role and Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture. She next starred with her
Wedding Crashers co-star Bradley Cooper,
Emma Stone and
John Krasinski in
Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy-drama
Aloha. She played the ex-girlfriend of Cooper's character, who is married to Krasinski's character with two children. While the film received a negative reaction and controversy from critics and audiences alike,
Wesley Morris of
Grantland remarked: "Someone who can speak Crowe's language really helps. McAdams might be the best he's ever had ... [She] puts the perfect amount of air in her lines, giving the words a lightness that conflates optimism, amusement, and resignation. She's never seemed lovelier, more instinctive, or more present." Mark Olsen of the
Los Angeles Times felt she "plays likely the strongest, most rounded female character Crowe has ever written, a woman suddenly lips to lips with the life she has and the one she might have had, and the actress brings a grounded, unforced earthiness to the role that is a joy to watch." She co-starred with
Jake Gyllenhaal in the boxing drama
Southpaw (2015), where she played the wife of Gyllenhaal's character.
A.O. Scott of
The New York Times conceded: "It features some pretty appealing players. There are worse things to see at the multiplex than Ms. McAdams playing a tough cookie standing by her man." She co-starred with
James Franco,
Charlotte Gainsbourg and
Marie-Josée Croze in
Wim Wenders' drama
Every Thing Will Be Fine. The film received a U.S. limited release in December 2015. Guy Lodge of
Variety remarked: "Poor McAdams, sporting sensible hair and a truly mystifying cod-Continental accent, continues her thankless run of needy, tossed-aside love interests in big-name auteur projects." That same year, McAdams returned to television and starred as Det.
Ani Bezzerides in the
second season of
HBO's anthology crime drama
True Detective with her
Wedding Crashers co-star Vince Vaughn,
Colin Farrell and
Taylor Kitsch. Richard Vine of
The Guardian remarked: "If there's anyone with any chance of enjoying a McConaughaissance here it's probably McAdams – an actor whose characters are more usually associated with the death of the romcom than murders involving people with eyes burned out by acid. Here, her Ani is a convincing mess." She received a nomination for the
Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries for her role. The following year, McAdams voiced The Mother of The Little Girl in an animated version of
The Little Prince, and co-starred with
Benedict Cumberbatch in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film
Doctor Strange. Peter Debruge of
Variety said McAdams played "the most competent—and human—of Marvel's window-dressing girlfriends," while Gregory Ellwood of
Indiewire remarked: "It goes without saying that McAdams will never get the credit she deserves for transforming the barely sketched out role of Strange's former medical colleague Christine Palmer into a captivating three-dimensional character that feels like an integral part of the storyline even when she isn't." Also in 2016, McAdams narrated an
audiobook version of
L. M. Montgomery's novel
Anne of Green Gables, released by
Audible. After a year-long absence from the screen, McAdams co-starred with
Jason Bateman in the comedy
Game Night (2018). Glenn Kenny of
The New York Times said the film served as a "reminder that Ms. McAdams is one of cinema's most accomplished and appealing comic actresses." Richard Lawson of
Vanity Fair felt her character lacked "any real arc or motivation of her own", but "It's a testament to McAdams's talent and charm, then, that she doesn't get lost in the movie, asserting herself in every scene with a goofy brightness." She performed some of her own stunt driving in a getaway scene. Later in 2018, McAdams starred opposite
Rachel Weisz in
Sebastián Lelio's romantic drama
Disobedience, based on
Naomi Alderman's novel. Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times said McAdams "does some lovely work here to convey a woman agonizing over her existential situation".
2020–present: Broadway debut and continued film success In 2020, she co-starred with
Will Ferrell in the
Netflix musical comedy film
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. McAdams reprised the role of Christine Palmer in the superhero sequel
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Released in May 2022, it garnered mixed reviews. McAdams starred in ''
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.'', a film adaptation of
Judy Blume's
novel of the same name. The film was released in April 2023 to positive reviews.
Vanity Fairs
Richard Lawson wrote in his review that McAdams "deftly paints a thorough and compelling picture of a woman of the era" in her portrayal of the titular Margaret's mother, Barbara. McAdams appeared as a cameo guest on
Saturday Night Live in January 2024, introducing
Reneé Rapp as musical guest and appeared as a look-a-like of herself in a comedy sketch where the look-a-like asked
Jacob Elordi for acting advice. McAdams made her
Broadway debut in 2024, starring in
Amy Herzog's play
Mary Jane at the
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Performances started April 2 with opening night set for April 23, 2024. Adrian Holden of
The Guardian described her performance as "magnetic", adding, "The role of Mary Jane ... is a perfect fit for McAdams".
Variety noted that McAdams' "projection was muted at a recent performance" but added "[She] masters her portrayal of a determined caregiver continually sitting in the uncertainty of worry, despite constantly leaning toward positivity." For her performance, she earned a
Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play nomination. In 2026, she was honored with
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2026, McAdams returned to the big screen in director
Sam Raimi's
survival horror thriller film Send Help, in which she co-starred with
Dylan O'Brien as an employee and her boss, respectively, who become stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash and attempt to survive while tension rises between them. Michael Phillips of the
San Francisco Chronicle described the film as a performance showcase "for McAdams' miraculous shape-shifting abilities." The film was a box office success, and has grossed $64 million in the United States and Canada, and $29 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $94 million against a $40 million production budget. ==Activism==