Rachel McAdams quit acting for two years to 'stay sane'

Rachel McAdams says she took a two-year hiatus from acting at the peak of her career so she wouldn’t lose 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,” the actress, 44, said of her decision to take a break from the film industry in a new interview with Bustle.

“But I also knew it wasn’t quite jiving with my personality and what I needed to stay sane.”

McAdams explained that there is no guide on how to deal with the “overnight” fame she felt after starring in “Mean Girls” and “The Notebook,” which both debuted in 2004.

“You don’t go to theater school to learn about how to deal with that. There’s no book on how to navigate that,” she said.

Just as the Canadian actress was skyrocketing to success in Hollywood, she moved back to Toronto where she spent her time biking around the city, hanging with her family and re-centering herself.

During that time, McAdams passed up major roles in films like “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Casino Royale,” “Mission: Impossible III,” “Iron Man” and “Get Smart.”

McAdams admitted that she sometimes questioned whether she had made a mistake.

“There were definitely some anxious moments of wondering if I was just throwing it all away, and why was I doing that?” she confessed. “It’s taken years to understand what I intuitively was doing.”

Still, there are moments today when McAdams feels regret about passing on some of those major movie roles.

 “There’s certainly things like, ‘I wish I’d done that,’” she told the outlet.

McAdams knows, however, that there’s a method to the movie madness – and believes the women who were ultimately cast in the roles she passed on were the correct choice.

“I step back and go, ‘That was the right person for that,’” she said.

McAdams also explained that her acting hiatus allowed her to “feel empowered.”

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“I guess I always had a sense that it would be OK; either it’s going to work out or it’s not,” McAdams said. “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.”

Just like her acting career, the “Family Stone” star has also come to terms with her own body.

McAdams posed for a photo shoot with Bustle where she proudly displayed her underarm hair while posing in sexy clothing.

“With this shoot, I’m wearing latex underwear. But I’ve had two children,” she told the magazine. “This is my body, and I think that’s so important to reflect back out to the world.”

McAdams shares a son, 5, and daughter, 2, with longtime partner Jamie Linden, 42.

As for her latest acting project, McAdams is starring in the upcoming film adaptation of Judy Blume’s hit book “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”