Rachel McAdams names her favourite movie of all time
A fierce dramatic actor and an underrated comedy star, Rachel McAdams is one of the most versatile actors in all of modern cinema, often not getting the credit she deserves for her performances. Working with the likes of Wes Craven, Guy Ritchie, Sam Raimi, Richard Curtis, Woody Allen, Antoine Fuqua and Scott Derrickson, even though McAdams has been performing in Hollywood since 2001, it feels as though she’s only just getting started.
Though she made her feature film debut in 2002 with the peculiar comedy My Name Is Tanino, many will have first seen McAdams in her breakout role in 2004’s Mean Girls. A classic modern comedy, Mean Girls tells the story of a high-school clique that holds power over the students of the school, with the group including McAdams’ Regina George, Lindsay Lohan’s Cady Heron, Lacey Chabert’s Gretchen Wieners and Amanda Seyfried’s Karen Smith.
McAdams immediately followed up the success of Mean Girls with the beloved romantic comedy The Notebook, where she co-starred alongside Ryan Gosling. The role would allow McAdams to express herself as a charismatic romantic lead, leading to many similar roles in the near future, including Robert Schwentke The Time Traveler’s Wife, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, and Richard Curtis’ About Time.
These days, the actor can be seen in more comedic roles, starring in John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s underrated Game Night as well as David Dobkin’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. But, as the actor continues to appear in increasingly eclectic roles, one wonders what movies inspired her in her youth, steadily becoming her all-time favourites.
In conversation with Cindy Pearlman for the 2007 book, You Gotta See This, McAdams states: “I really love Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It’s so weird and such a creepy movie. Veruca is my favourite little-girl character. She’s awesomely horrible to the maximum”.
A family favourite to this very day, 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was the very first of Roald Dahl’s books to be adapted into a movie. Telling the classic tale of a young boy named Charlie Bucket who finds a golden ticket that grants him access to the most mysterious chocolate factory in the world, the classic film is a favourite of many around the world, largely thanks to Gene Wilder’s wonderful lead performance.
As well as being a favourite of McAdams, the actor also revealed that one of the characters gave her great inspiration for one of her most iconic roles later in her career. Speaking about Veruca Salt, a petulant, arrogant child, played by actor Julie Dawn Cole, she exclaims: “She so inspired me in terms of playing those mean girls in Mean Girls. She’s such a template because she’s delicious”.
Such may explain why McAdams’ Regina George takes so fondly to the chocolatey Kälteen Bars in Mean Girls.
