Rachel McAdams is finally returning to theaters in a role outside the Marvel universe with Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret., a film adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal novel about a sixth-grader searching for herself. It seemed appropriate that McAdams’ interview with Bustle about the movie be accompanied by photos showing her embracing her body. She asked that her photos only minimally be retouched, even leaving in her armpit hair.
“I love that juxtaposition of beauty, glam, fantasy, and then truth,” McAdams, 44, told Bustle. “With this shoot, I’m wearing latex underwear. But I’ve had two children. This is my body, and I think that’s so important to reflect back out to the world.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, McAdams jokingly referred to herself as a “milking machine.” Are You There God? was shot just five months after McAdams gave birth to her daughter and she told Bustle she was pumping between filming. When the costume designer asked McAdams if she could try a scene without a bra, the irony wasn’t lost on her.
“The great irony is Margaret just can’t wait to get into a bra. But I’m playing a kind of wild child, hippie artist mom [who] doesn’t wear a bra throughout the whole film,” McAdams said. “[We] really wanted [her character] Barb to feel like a real person who’s still figuring herself out, to put Margaret and her on similar trajectories.”
McAdams didn’t pose with breast pumps for Bustle since she’s already done that. Back in 2018, while promoting Disobedience, McAdams wore breast pumps for photographer Claire Rothstein’s Girls. Girls. Girls. magazine. At the time she shot that photo, her son was six months old. McAdams and screenwriter Jamie Linden have not publicly revealed their children’s names.
McAdams stars as Margaret’s mother Barb in Are You There God?, which she filmed after taking another break from filmmaking. She stepped away after Game Night in 2018, only returning two years later for Netflix’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Last year, she was seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but her role was much smaller than in the first Doctor Strange movie. Her breaks have helped McAdams stay in touch with reality.
“I guess I always had a sense that it would be OK; either it’s going to work out or it’s not,” McAdams told Bustle. The breaks “really helped me feel empowered. It helped me feel like I was taking back some control. And I think it sort of allowed me to come in from a different doorway.”
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. hits theaters on April 28, following its premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The movie stars Abby Ryder Forston in the title role, alongside Benny Safdie and Kathy Bates. Kelly Fremon Craig, who also made the beloved 2016 coming-of-age movie The Edge of Seventeen, wrote and directed the film.
