Rachel McAdams is proudly putting it all out there.
The "Mean Girls" actor made a statement Tuesday when she showcased some of her natural features in Bustle — ahead of the release of her film "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret," based on Judy Blume's acclaimed 1970 coming-of-age book that depicts the transition from girlhood to adolescence.
For the photo shoot, McAdams lounged in a black corset with her arm out to the side, her underarm hair on full display. The glam star also asked Bustle to edit the images as minimally as possible.
"I love that juxtaposition of beauty, glam, fantasy, and then truth," the 44-year-old said. "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."
"It's OK to look your best and work at it and be healthy, but that's different for everyone."
In a video segment titled "Hi Rachel, it's me Rachel" that Bustle produced in tandem with the feature, McAdams gave advice to her preteen self, who's worried about being "normal." The "Wedding Crashers" actor said, "Normal is boring."
"I know all you want to do is be like everyone else but it's pretty much impossible. You're a snowflake so just embrace it. What makes you different is what makes you best," she said.
McAdams also had a few words of wisdom regarding shaving: "Life is long, shaving is intense," she said. "If you want to stop shaving one day, that's OK too."
In 2018, McAdams made a splashy statement when she posed for the cover of Girls. Girls. Girls. magazine. Decked out head-to-toe in Versace and Bulgari jewelry, McAdams managed to make the breast pump affixed to her chest a high-fashion moment.
The magazine's founder, editor and photographer, Claire Rothstein, who shot that image of McAdams, praised the "Notebook" star on Instagram at the time by sharing that McAcdams was six months postpartum and was expressing, pumping and breastfeeding between shots.
"Breastfeeding is the most normal thing in the world, like breathing and I can't for the life of me imagine why or how it is ever frowned upon or scared of," Rothstein wrote.
McAdams had given birth to her daughter five months prior to filming "Are You There God" and told Bustle she "felt like a milking machine" while pumping on set. Then, the costume designer decided that her character — Margaret's mom, Barb — shouldn't wear a bra, which poses unique and messy challenges for a lactating parent.
"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," she said. "[We] really wanted Barb to feel like a real person who's still figuring herself out, to put Margaret and her on similar trajectories."
McAdams is comfortable saying no when she needs to, and over the years she's said no quite a bit.
In 2015, she told the Los Angeles Times that she walked off a Vanity Fair cover shot she was set to pose for alongside Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley after learning upon arrival that the other two women had agreed to pose nude. And, according to Bustle, she turned down roles in "The Devil Wears Prada," "Casino Royale," "Mission: Impossible III," "Iron Man" and "Get Smart."
Expressing some regret about passing up the hit movies, McAdams said she took a step back and believed that each one's respective star "was the right person for that" film.
McAdams also said no to acting altogether when, in the early aughts at the height of her career, she took a two-year break to preserve her sanity.
"I felt guilty for not capitalizing on the opportunity that I was being given, because I knew I was in such a lucky spot. But I also knew it wasn't quite [jibing] with my personality and what I needed to stay sane," she said.
"There were definitely some anxious moments of wondering if I was just throwing it all away, and why was I doing that?" she added. "It's taken years to understand what I intuitively was doing."
"Are You There God? It's Me Margaret" hits theaters April 28.
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