I think Rachel McAdams is SO pretty, but I’m not feeling this Marie Claire editorial for the June issue. My biggest problem might be Rachel’s attempt at some kind of ombre hair. She doesn’t necessarily have to go back to red (although she was beautiful as a redhead), but I’m really tired of that half-fried-blonde look. Anyway, Rachel covers Marie Claire to promote Aloha (the Cameron Crowe movie with Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper), plus True Detective. I’m really looking forward to True Detective and I have high hopes that Rachel will break the series out of a “white dudes with issues” rut. Some highlights from the interview:

On her role in True Detective as Detective Ani Bezzerides: “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.”

On her character in True Detective: “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.”

On calling time-out after the Mean Girls-Notebook-Wedding Crashers trifecta: “I had to kind of reassess and go, What did I want this [success] to be, and how did I expect it to look?”

On prepping with the Ventura County Police Department and the LAPD for True Detective: “I don’t know how they do it every day. I was like, ‘I’m going to get a hash brown from McDonald’s and go to bed.’”

On the type of characters she likes to play: “I prefer to be a villainess. There’s something a bit more delicious about their wickedness.”

[From Marie Claire]

I think she’s right about women feeling like they have to play “likeable” characters. And to be fair, many male actors feel the same way. I wonder if people are going to have a problem with Rachel playing a harder woman, a woman who isn’t sunshine and romance? Rachel could have positioned herself as the next big “sweetheart,” the go-to rom-com girl, but I wonder if she was really interested in that. She seems to be more interested in doing character work, or maybe that’s what she’s told herself after her career faltered for several years. Anyway… I still believe in her and want her to do good work. Here’s hoping!

Photos courtesy of Jan Welters/Marie Claire.