Rachel McAdams Dishes on Her Gritty New Character in 'True Detective'

McAdams opened up to Marie Claire about her latest role as Detective Ani Bezzerides for their June cover story.

[Credit: Jan Welters/Marie Claire]

The 36-year-old explained the character, saying, “I love that she's not the girlfriend or the wife… she doesn't really care what everyone thinks; she feels no responsibility for other people's feelings. She's not trying to be charming, which isn't always the case with a leading lady. There's [usually] sort of a responsibility to be a little bit likable… not that you want to be a horrendous character, just a little more human.”

As far as the discovery process is concerned, Rachel said, “I love the exploration of someone who has such a different background from you. That exploration runs to compassion, and to cracking yourself open and creating more understanding of how weird and amazing life is.”

[Credit: Jan Welters/Marie Claire]

She added that after the success of films like “Mean Girls,” “The Notebook” and “Wedding Crashers,” she had to “reassess.”

“I had to kind of reassess and go, 'What did I want this [success] to be, and how did I expect it to look?'”