Being typecast is an actor’s biggest fear: when your portray a role so well, often early on in your career, and end up being unable to escape it. It’s happened to Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker; Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, and arguably Hugh Grant, who played the same foppish English gentleman in most films of the Noughties.
Now, Rachel McAdams has spoken out about her fears that her iconic Mean Girls’ villain, Regina George, may come to define her career – especially considering that the film is still as quoted now as it was 20 years ago (particularly thanks to the rise of meme-culture, which Mean Girls provides ample fodder for).
Speaking to the New York Times, the actress, who has since starred in Spotlight, Midnight in Paris and True Detective, she joked: ‘Does Regina George haunt me every day? She does have that quality.’
‘No, I have to thank Regina George for giving me some longevity. I’m forever grateful to Tina Fey and Mark Waters,’ she continued. ‘I remember when I read it, I called my agent right away and said, 'I will play any part in this, please, please, please.' I was at the beginning of my career, and it was a lofty thing out there, that I really, really, really wanted to do. I’m always looking for larger-than-life characters, which is probably why I like playing villains. They get away with so much.’
McAdams recently confirmed that she is pregnant with her first child, with boyfriend of two years Jamie Linden.