Rachel McAdams Turned Down Roles in IRON MAN, CASINO ROYALE, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
Rachel McAdams made her mark in Hollywood in 2004 when she starred in the hit films Mean Girls and The Notebook. The two films have remained fan favorites, and McAdams continued her hit streak in the next year when she starred in Red Eye, Wedding Crashers and The Family Stone. After the whirlwind of fame and success, the actress took some time off, and while she was away, she happened to pass up roles in a few movies that ended up being major hits.
In a recent interview with Variety, McAdams said that she ended up passing on starring in 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 her rise in Hollywood. She explained:
“There’s certainly things like ‘I wish I’d done that,’ [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.”
It looks like the actress’s career hasn’t suffered a bit from her short hiatus. She has gone on to be in some great films, and I look forward to seeing what she does in the future.