(Credits: Far Out / Paramount Pictures)
Wed 27 August 2025 5:00, UK
Rachel McAdams is one of those rare imports who make everything they touch genuinely brilliant. Though often restricted to playing romantic interests, the Canadian star never fails to give it her 100%.
Even if the film itself is bad, her obvious talents just stand out even more. I don’t know if you’ve seen The Notebook recently, but she acts circles around Ryan Gosling. Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing for the sly-smiling Ken.
One of the many great things about McAdams is her range. If it’s drama you’re looking for, then look no further than Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret or her Academy Award-nominated turn in Spotlight. She’s one of the best parts of Guy Ritchie’s excellent version of Sherlock Holmes, playing the fabulously evil seductress Irene Adler with wily aplomb. Arguably her most famous role, however, is a comedic one. As Regina George in Mean Girls, she absolutely kills it as the archetypal ‘Queen Bee’, making everybody forget that a 26-year-old woman is playing a high schooler.
Across her lengthy career, McAdams has worked with some of the all-time comedic greats. In Game Night, she starred alongside Jason Bateman and Chelsea Peretti, both big on the deadpan comedy style, making you cry-laugh with mere inflexions in vocal delivery. She also popped up opposite the dynamic duo of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers, holding her own as the miffed by the lies but giving in to feelings love interest of the former.
So, when asked by Glamour if she found it easier to be serious or silly on screen, she said she preferred the latter, as well as naming who she thought was her funniest co-star. “I’m very silly as a person, but quality silliness onscreen has more of an art to it,” she explained, adding, “Harrison Ford, whom I was in Morning Glory with, has mastered that dry funny better than anyone.”
Directed by the late Roger Michell of Notting Hill fame, Morning Glory stars McAdams as a plucky young TV executive who takes on the Herculean task of producing a flagging morning show. Ford plays Mike Pomeroy, a hard-boiled journalist who thinks the show is beneath him and cannot stand his more light-hearted co-worker, Colleen Peck, played by cool-glasses Diane Keaton. Ford plays a great straight man who refuses to engage in anything even remotely fluffy. He is the comedic pillar around which the rest of the cast members construct their outlandish performances, ensuring maximum laughter.
Even though he’s best known for playing grizzled action heroes, Ford’s funny bone reigns supreme, as evidenced in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which is actually a hilarious film, thanks in no small part to the unexpected chemistry between Ford and his onscreen paternal figure, Sean Connery. Everyone laughed when Han Solo charged around a corner in Star Wars, only to find a whole garrison of Stormtroopers staring back at him. Ford uses his tough guy persona to great comedic effect, precisely because you wouldn’t expect someone as serious as him to put himself in these situations.
Comedy is incredibly subjective, and it is so hard to pull off as an actor. There are so many ways to make audiences laugh, and playing it deadpan while everything else falls apart around you is one of the hardest techniques to nail. Ford does nail it, and his co-stars, McAdams included, are clearly very grateful.
Related Topics