Rachel McAdams: 'It's A Very Romantic Notion'

Rachel McAdams has found her big-screen niche as a very specific kind of fairytale heroine - a big-eyed beauty who can't fail to bring out the protective side in her admirers, yet succeeds in keeping female fans on side, too. She could be a natural successor for the title of America's sweetheart after a catalogue of hits - The Time Traveller's Wife, The Notebook are the biggies - but she's also displayed a comic turn - Sherlock Holmes, Morning Glory, Midnight in Paris.

Channing Tatum with Rachel McAdams in The Vow

This week sees the DVD release of The Vow, an unashamed weepy about a girl who loves a boy, but loses her memory in a car crash and forgets she even knew him. Sounds completely unrealistic? It's based on a true story. Here, McAdams explains what drew her in and, inevitably, her own views on romance (currently on the arm of British actor Michael Sheen, after high-profile romance with Notebook co-star Ryan Gosling)...

What appealed to you about this character and film?

I’d heard that it was inspired by a real couple and I thought that was just extraordinary; an amazing story to be told. We’ve done it a little bit differently from what really happened to them. I was very interested in Paige’s journey. She goes on such a rollercoaster. The effects of a brain injury can be really extreme in terms of your emotional responses to things and laughing at inappropriate times or not knowing how to cry. Your emotions can become very out of sync with what they would normally be. There’s a lot of anxiety and frustration. [There’s] also this idea of starting over again. Can you find your way back onto your path without all of those memories?

If this happened to your loved one, would you fight like Leo and would you fall in love again like Paige?

I think I would fight the way Leo does, absolutely. He has extraordinary patience. There’s this idea that comes up that is interesting, too. Are you in love with the idea of someone? Are you in love with the fight more than the outcome? He has to be really honest with himself about that. The hardest thing about this scenario is that, ultimately, no matter what you do, the other person who’s lost the memory – it has to be their idea. They have to come to a place within themselves where they want to take that on or go back there. I think that’s what Leo does, which is the greatest sacrifice that he makes: that he lets her go.

Channing Tatum has to persuade Rachel McAdams to fall back in love with him in The Vow

Are you the kind of romantic person who believes you would fall in love with the same person, even if you didn’t remember them?

I guess it’s a very romantic notion but what I thought was so cool in talking to brain experts and people who specialize in memory loss is that they say, even if all your memories are erased, you will find your way back. Nine times out of ten people tend to find their way back to the life that they were living before their accident. That includes finding their way back to the people that they gravitated towards. There’s this kernel of truth inside of you, no matter what happens to you, that you can connect with and that extends to the people you connect to in life and are drawn to.

Did you ever think you’d become a brain expert?

[Laughs]. No.

Have you met the real woman?

Yes. Krikitt Carpenter. She’s incredible. She may have gone through the emotions that Paige goes through internally but she made a choice to just stay and not venture outside of the marriage and not break that vow in any way, which is way more incredible than the story we’re telling and almost more fantastical. That was the reality of their scenario. We met them and they have two gorgeous children. They’d been married for two months when they had this accident.

What was your initial reaction reading the script?

It’s heartbreaking. I can’t imagine if I had found the love of my life and then they had no idea who I was. I think that brings up all kinds of emotions that people can relate to, even if that particular thing hasn’t happened. That’s quite unusual, but people become disconnected. You can be so connected at one point in your lives and then things happen and you are so far away from each other. How do you find your way back? This is an extreme version of that. But I think that happens to everyone, in all marriages.

Do you think you fall in love with your heart or your head, because in the film, when Paige loses her memories, she’s no longer in love?

I think that’s why Leo had to let her go. There’s so much pressure to remember that it clouds your ability to just be with the person. It clouds your ability to just go on a nice easy breezy date and get to know each other again. There’s so much pressure and so much disappointment. I think Paige says, “I’m so tired of disappointing you and I can’t look into your eyes and see how much I’m hurting you anymore.” They say that’s very common. People who have had that kind of memory loss really push everyone away.

So it’s easier to fall in love with a complete stranger than someone you have a history with, but can’t remember?

Absolutely. [Laughs]

Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling in The Notebook

Can you fall back in love with someone you’ve fallen out of love with?

Yeah. I think, in that case, you have these ties that bind. You have a past that informs whether you can make it work or not. It’s funny how we have selective memory about those things though. You break it off and then you come back together and you think, it’s going to be totally different than it was the first time. It’s selective amnesia.

The film reinforces the idea that there is just one love for us. Do you believe that?

I don’t subscribe to that. I think that you can fall in love with – maybe not hundreds of people – but a handful. But there’s one that you maybe would like to do that with for a very long time. We tried to keep that open-ended with The Vow so it wasn’t so predictable. There’s a little bit of a question mark there. We don’t see the “happily ever after.” We see the beginning of something potentially great.

You change your look a lot, both in this film and in real life. Do people ever not recognize you because of how different you look from film to film?

I appreciate that. That’s a high compliment because I do like to be able to slip into other characters. I don’t want to play myself all the time. I live with myself most of the time, so it’s fun to get in there and make adjustments and get to work with the greatest hair stylists and makeup artists and people in the world. I’m very happy for people to adjust my look. That’s fun to me. That’s how I got started in this. Just playing make-believe.

I would imagine after The Notebook there was pressure to be America’s sweetheart, but you’ve really mixed up your roles since then. Has that been a deliberate thing? Do you have a big master plan?

I wish I did.

Were you careful with your choices so you weren’t seen as one kind of actress?

I think we all have a tendency to want to understand this person is this and that person’s that. It’s safe and comfortable to know what to expect from someone, but it’s not that interesting for me or for you guys, I don’t think. It is quite easy to be typecast and pigeonholed and once you’re in there, it’s very hard to break out. I think that’s something I thought about early on. It’s a constant dance with that. I want to make things that people will want to see. You can’t go so far outside the box that no one buys it. In terms of genres, I would like to do everything.

You returned for the second Sherlock Holmes and said you liked playing the character again. Would you like to do TV, where you can play a character for a longer time?

I would. I do like the idea of exploring a character for a long time and getting comfortable with them. I often find that you come to the end of your film and you’re just getting it; you’re just getting there. I like that process of theater where you get to live in that person’s skin a little bit longer and it’s a little bit more seamless and you don’t have to work as hard to find it.

I often feel on a film that I’m not sure that I’m ready. Sometimes you’re finding it as you go along. If you look back at day one, you’re like, “Oh God, I wish I could go back knowing what I know now and try that again.” I think you could eliminate that feeling a little bit over the course of eight years.

If you got a good offer, would you say yes to a TV show?

Sure. There are so many great possibilities in TV now. I think it’s a really exciting time.

Are there TV shows that you like to watch?

I just finished watching the Danish series The Killing. That was stressful but it was so good. I had to take a break from TV for a while.

The Vow is out on Blu-ray and DVD 25th June. Watch the trailer below...