How Rachel McAdams Achieved a Net Worth of $16 Million

People measure success differently, but to most, the yardstick is fame and prosperity. Rachel McAdams does not believe that success should be about becoming well-known and having paparazzi follow you everywhere you go. Therefore, even after being declared to be the next Julia Roberts, she was still not ready to be famous. All she wanted to do was have a good time acting but maintain her private life. She may have lost her privacy to some extent but has gained a lot of wealth. Rachel McAdams’ net worth is currently at $16 million, and this is her journey to achieving it.

A Fascination for the Movie Industry Begins

McAdams grew up in St. Thomas, a small town in Canada where she lived with her two younger siblings, Kayleen and Daniel, and her parents. Her father was in the furniture moving business while her mother was a nurse; hence, they could afford a middle-class lifestyle.

According to Marie Claire, they were quite a close-knit family that prioritized having family dinners every day. During the weekends, the McAdams family spent quality time together watching old films, and soon, McAdams wondered how good it must be to pretend to be someone else on stage. Therefore, when she turned seven, the hopeful actor decided to let her parents know of her Big Screen ambitions. She must have been shy to tell them in person, so she wrote them a letter, which could be why they did not take her seriously. Instead, they enrolled her into a sports program where she excelled, but her heart was set on being in the theater.

As Hello Magazine discloses, the actress had been a competitive ice skater since she was four; no wonder her parents wanted her to go down that path. She continued ice skating in high school, and her coach even encouraged her to go pro. However, McAdams’s life changed when her parents finally allowed her to attend an acting camp. She realized that the pressure that affected her so much that she went numb when in the ice rink was no longer there when on stage. The actress found her true calling and made up her mind to take the plunge by studying theater in Toronto at York University.

Learning to Pick Her Roles

After four years of theater studies and spending high school holidays working at McDonald’s, the doors finally opened for the budding actor when she was 23. She landed her first lead role in “Shotgun Love Dolls.” It did not transform her into a big star but increased her credibility as an actor. Thus, she got a regular role in “Slings and Arrows.” However, that was a Canadian TV series, and McAdams wanted to be in Hollywood, so according to People Magazine, she moved to Los Angeles hoping to make it big immediately. Unfortunately, the first audition in a TV pilot where she would play Nancy Drew was a disappointment.

Luckily she gained confidence and got to be in “The Hot Chick” as the lead actress. She stamped her arrival in Hollywood, and the actress said she owes it all to Rob Schneider, whom she co-starred with in the film. After that film, McAdams was on a roll and was cast in “Mean Girls,” “Wedding Crashers,” and “The Notebook.” Although it is not clear how much McAdams got for her role in “Mean Girls,” according to The Things, her co-star, Lindsay Lohan, bagged $1 million. The amount may have been peanuts considering the film’s success, but the movie helped Lohan get more lucrative deals. For instance, in less than a year, Lohan had signed another deal worth $7.5 million after “Mean Girls.”

Lost Opportunities

After making her mark in Hollywood, McAdams was sought after by Vanity Fair to pose nude alongside Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley. Her publicist had left out the part about being naked, so after arriving at the shoot and realizing what was expected of her, the actress stormed out. It seems that posing nude worked out well for those who want to shine their Hollywood stars because Johansson has gone ahead to get huge roles. Kate Moss also has made her living posing nude, and according to Vanity Fair, the model can make as much as $400,000 per photo-shoot. Apart from declining the nude cover shot, McAdams also rejected a role in “The Devil Wears Prada,” which would have seen her add another million to her net worth. Instead of embracing her new life as a Hollywood actress, she took a sabbatical and went back to her hometown in Toronto. She was not ready for the celebrity life, so she enjoyed being with friends and family, riding bikes, and moving about without cameras being shoved in her face. Still, McAdams knew that she wanted to act, so she returned to Hollywood after a two-year break.

Making More Money

Since she returned to acting in 2008, McAdams has continued landing roles alongside other major actors. In” Sherlock Holmes,” she stars alongside Robert Downey Jr., who took home $15 million. She is also set to return to “Doctor Strange 2,” where her salary should be in the range of millions. After all, Benedict Cumberbatch made $6.4 million for his lead role in the film and is reportedly being paid $9.5 million for the sequel.

The actress is described as being picky in her roles. She believes if she is going to embody a certain character, she might as well have fun doing it. Consequently, in 2015, Forbes published that she never became a movie star because the roles she picks do not belong in the female-centric genre that helped boost careers of actresses like Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, and Ashley Judd. However, McAdams is comfortable doing what she does, even if it does not rake in many millions. Besides, her $16 million net worth is bound to last long because she has always been very frugal.