After the thrilling True Detective mini-series starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson left HBO viewers thirsty for more hardboiled crime stories, HBO commissioned a second season featuring a new cast of characters. Unlike the first season, season two will feature a female officer played by Mean Girls star Rachel McAdams. McAdams spoke about what she calls “the job of a lifetime” in an interview with Marie Claire.
Regarding why she loves acting, McAdams pinpoints a very simple reason. “What I love is dropping into someone else’s life and exploring it.” She continues, “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.”
Though McAdams is a popular actress, in many of her roles she has played less central roles as a wife or girlfriend of the protagonist, like in Wedding Crashers, Sherlock Holmes, Midnight in Paris, and About Time. That is why she is so excited about her role in True Detective as the rough-living chain-smoking cop Ani Bezzerides. McAdams explains, “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 likeable… Not that you want to be a horrendous character, just a little more human.”
