august-2009

Reader’s
TOP: THE TIME
TRAVELER’S WIFE
ABOVE: SHERLOCK
HOLMES
28JetAway
‘Sherlock Holmes is in true Guy
Ritchie fashion, with lots of
fighting and explosions’
It was her role in another sweeping romance
– the adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s novel The
Notebook – that initially endeared McAdams
to audiences. Released in June of 2004 as a canny
alternative to the season’s spate of blokey action
thrillers, the fi lm proved a surprising summer
sleeper, raking in nearly $100m with its combination
of slow-burn Southern romance and threehankie
melodrama. Considering the fact that her
other big hit, 2005’s Wedding Crashers, was a
romantic comedy, it only seems fair to ask
McAdams how she views romance.
“You try to be as practical as you can but my
heart always wins the battle with my head,” she
admits, like a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet from
Pride And Prejudice. “Love takes a lot of time and
commitment, and I think it comes down to making
a choice you believe in. Once you’ve made that
decision, you don’t hold back: it’s everything and
the kitchen sink. I don’t know anything about love,
but my parents are still very much in love and it
takes a lot of work. You have to have passion and
a little bit of spit and fi re.”
The pressures of fame became real for McAdams
over the course of an on-again/off-again relationship
with her Notebook co-star Ryan Gosling. But
she accepts that the opportunities are more than
worth the downsides. “There’s a lot of pressure,”
she insists, “but it’s very fl attering. It’s important for
people to think that I’m competent, but you have to
go into it selfi shly – it’s a little bit dangerous to see
yourself the way other people do. I guess I just try to
enjoy it and hopefully it’ll all work out.”
Things certainly seem to be working out fi ne
for McAdams, who will follow up The Time
Traveler’s Wife by starring opposite Robert Downey
Jr and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes.
Yes, it’s another literary effort, this time drawing
on the work of Scottish author Arthur Conan
Doyle (the girl is nothing else if not well read).
Though the fi lm won’t even be released until
Christmas, fans have been clamouring for details
ever since Ritchie began discussing the project at
the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. “I didn’t realise
how big it was until I stepped on the sets. They
were just massive. It’s in true Guy Ritchie fashion,
with lots of fi ghting and explosions. I supposedly
play Sherlock’s love interest,” she says with a laugh,
“but it’s really Watson!”
Which book she may get inspiration from next
is anyone’s bet, but she defi nitely has a reading list.
“I always think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna see everybody on
my days off. I’m gonna read so many books…’”
With a little luck, one may even be a Jackie Cooper
– we can always live in hope!