Rachel McAdams doesn’t need you to Send Help

Dylan O’Brien is on all fours on his sofa, phone balanced somewhere between the cushions as he fires questions at Rachel McAdams between long, winding soliloquies about how much he loves her. For the Zoom call, McAdams’ Send Help co-star has dressed in hand-stitched technicolour trousers that he bought at a farmer’s market in Southern Oregon, a detail that piques McAdams’ curiosity immediately. In check with the dress code, McAdams’ is wearing a tie-dye t-shirt she picked up on a trip to Guatemala, layered underneath a plaid button-up, with her hair pulled into a messy side plait. Behind her, shelves are cluttered with plants, knick-knacks and handwritten cards from loved ones — evidence of a life nurtured beyond the spotlight. It’s an image that feels consistent with everything the actor has long projected: warmth without fuss. 

Raised in London, Canada, the daughter of a truck-driving father and a nurse mother, McAdams has built a grounded life with her partner, American screenwriter Jamie Linden, and their two children. Her bohemian aesthetic is more than style — it reflects a long-standing commitment to sustainability, from running her eco-friendly lifestyle website, GreenIsSexy, to environmental activism. On the set of Send Help, that ethos became a point of connection with O’Brien, whose own love of sustainable fashion and DIY projects made them fast friends, both “crafty little kids” at heart. 

Their off-screen chemistry proved invaluable on the set of the new survival thriller, where near-constant ninety-degree heat and oppressive humidity turned every day into a trial by fire. In the film, McAdams plays a downtrodden office worker stranded on a deserted island with her egotistical boss, played by O’Brien — a fantasia of female rage where power dynamics are flipped, and McAdams’ character finally gets to unleash what has been simmering beneath the surface. Yet, the set itself was far from laden with toxic masculinity. McAdams jokes that O’Brien’s early bedtimes and turmeric drinks sometimes made her feel like a “slouch”. He’s quick to counter: she was working twice as many days as him and has twice as many kids.

This is where McAdams’ particular magic becomes clear. She is, unquestionably, a fiercely skilled actor with monumental performances under her belt, yet she carries none of the self-seriousness that often accompanies that kind of career. There’s a lightness to her, an impression of effortlessness that disguises the discipline beneath. Over two decades, she has built a career defined by remarkable range, from her breakout role in Mean Girls to the heart-wrenching romance of The Notebook, and culminating in her Oscar-nominated performance in Spotlight.

O’Brien, meanwhile, has admired her work since he was a teenager and can barely contain his excitement at the opportunity to pick her brain. He paces, kneels and sprawls across the couch, oscillating between interviewer and fangirl as he grills her on exactly how she does it. “You are one of the greatest actors I have ever watched or had the pleasure of working with,” he says. “You’re gonna make me cry,” McAdams responds, lifting her sleeve to wipe the fog from her glasses. 

Dylan O’Brien: What’s your favourite pizza topping?

Rachel McAdams: My pizza order is pineapple, mushrooms, green olives and banana peppers.

DO: Wow. I’m really glad I asked that question because that’s gonna get a lot of clicks.

You’re someone who has always had such strong performances. Is there anything that you’ve held on to in terms of something you lean on, believe in, or show up to set with?

RM: At a baseline, I have music that I listen to. And I love getting into all the character bits, the aesthetics and physicality. That’s all really fun. But it’s nothing if you’re not bringing whatever it is in yourself that relates to the character. The deepest part of you, the part of you that you’re super uncomfortable with. I’m always forcing myself to find the discomfort and the really vulnerable thing that I’m gonna challenge myself to, even if it might feel weird and bad. It’s hard to live in that place.

“I spent a lot of time in my room crying over songs and feeling things.”

DO: You’re better in your audition tape for The Notebook than I’ve ever been in anything in my entire life. It became viral because it’s truly astonishing. Auditions are impossible to perform in and it’s fascinating you achieved that. Do people ever bring that up to you? 

RM: I think that’s the fun of drama, right? Like, the pathos that you get permission to have. All of these human feelings and the deeper you can go, the more people like it. I spent a lot of time in my room crying over songs and feeling things. As a kid, I was amazed that the more ferocious I was on stage or the more I cried, spat or had snot flying down my face, the more people clapped. As someone who was pretty quiet and didn’t have a lot of artistic outlets, when I hit on that, I was like, Oh I would love to do this. 

DO: One of the things I love about you is how intensely you prepare and how little you show that to anybody. There is zero percent of you that is performative. Do you want to speak about that process of preparation?

RM: I’m shocked to hear you say that. I don’t see myself in that way. I definitely prepare, but I never feel prepared enough. I don’t know what other people’s processes are because you sit in front of them but don’t see what they’re doing behind closed doors, so I never know where I am on the scale. I always feel like I can do a little bit more. You come home, you’ve got the kids, and you’re grabbing as much as you can. 

DO: I’ve never worked with a more living organism on screen. It’s amazing to see how you show up in a take and you’re so alive. I could throw anything at you and you catch the ball in a way that is so immediate and reflexive. From my perspective, that highlights how your character is laced into your DNA. 

RM: This role was great in terms of preparation because [Send Help’s director] Sam Raimi loves to prepare. He has endless time to talk about the movie. We started talking about it months in advance and met for a couple of months leading up to getting on camera. And with this character, there was so much to unearth with her. It was such an interesting experiment because it felt like we had some rules but we also had no rules, and I didn’t know which moment we were in. 

DO: Yes! Because at every turn, it is sort of a slippery slope. We had to kinda let it fly. 

RM: And that became a trust exercise, as well. I trust you implicitly. You’re so truthful and you are so about making sure it doesn’t just lay there like a flat, limp noodle. It was so fun to wake up and see what was on the page that day. 

“It’s the best when you get to play a villain — they’re really delicious.”

DO: As actors, there seems to be one or two questions repeated on a press tour. For you, that question might be: This is such a different role for you and what drew you to it? But my curiosity is if the answer might be: This isn’t a different role for you at all?

RM: You know me very well. It’s the best when you get to play a villain. I’ve played many shades of that before, and I look forward to doing it because they’re really delicious. What’s different about this one is how far the character goes in terms of likeability, redeemability and redemption. You still have to root for her. I don’t think I’ve had to play the anti-hero to that extent before. That was a massive challenge. 

DO: Did Sam Raimi instill the confidence in you to take bold swings in the role?

RM: Yeah. I loved the script. I loved the character. It gave me that intangible tingly feeling and I thought, I could see myself doing this. He’s such a kind and collaborative person and I knew this role would require all of that. I could already tell that it was gonna be a huge lift, and that I would want to be with someone kind, nurturing and loving. He has all the time in the world to talk about whatever you’re thinking about. When he’s in a movie, that’s all he’s doing. 

DO: So, how do you stay grounded in this industry?

RM: There’s not a lot of room for drama in this industry. It really has to stay in front of the camera — let’s just save it for there because it’s too tiring otherwise. I just love getting to hang out with creative people and it really feeds my soul.