This week, the only pop culture story people want to talk about is Rachel McAdams’ armpits.

The actor, who starred in Mean Girls, The Notebook and The Vow, amongst others, had taken what ultimately became a two-year hiatus before returning with a cover page story on Bustle this week.

In the piece, she delved into her reasons for walking away from fame, all the roles she had turned down in the process and motherhood.

But it was all overshadowed by… body hair.

McAdams’ return to the limelight was accompanied by a photoshoot captured by photographer Mark Seliger, and the shots quickly went viral.

Posing with her arms in the air, showing her unshaved underarms, the actor requested they be edited “as minimally as possible”. And while most have praised the actor for being “natural”, others have told her “Body hair is not attractive.”

In spite of the depth of her candid interview, it seems her underarms are all the world has noticed. And while some online have ‘called out’ McAdams for naturally growing out her armpits, many are praising her for displaying her body hair.

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Because what is body hair if not natural?

McAdams, it seems, may take a similar stance. In the video she shot to accompany the Bustle article, the 44-year-old said, “This is the advice my mother gave me: ‘Once you start, you can never stop.’ I remember rolling my eyes about that and thinking, ‘Ugh, that’s not a fun answer.’ But it’s so true.

“Life is long and shaving is intense.”

While the topic of the star’s pits quickly became the most talked-about part of the interview, the actor shared much more than her views on body hair.

McAdams’ rise to fame didn’t come easy, but it did come fast, she told Bustle.

“It did feel a little overnight.”

After graduating with a BFA from York University in 2001, she landed an award-winning role in the Canadian TV series Slings & Arrows and in 2002, she played the main character in The Hot Chick alongside Rob Schneider and Anna Faris.

But in 2004, she landed the role that made her a significant pop culture icon today: Mean Girls. 

“I feel really lucky to have been a part of something that’s stuck around – even a little bit,” she said in 2020 of its cultural significance. “That was never anything I imagined happening in life. So yeah, it’s strange and surreal still.”

The same year, she played the infamous Regina George, McAdams took on another iconic role – that of Alfie Hamilton in The Notebook, alongside Ryan Gosling.

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She also told Bustle that she wasn’t prepared for what such levels of fame would mean.

Her last major role came in 2020 alongside Will Ferrell in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.

Ultimately, she left behind her A-lister status, happily, for two years and returned to her hometown in Canada.

In hindsight, it’s not a regret she carries, but a guilt for having the opportunity to push herself further but choosing not to.

“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 jiving with my personality and what I needed to stay sane,” she told the publication.

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

And there was a lot she walked away from, including a 2006 Vanity Fair cover shoot alongside Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley, during which she realized she would have to pose nude – and essentially left the set.

After moving back to Canada, she walked away from more roles, including The Devil Wears Prada, Casino Royale, Mission: Impossible III, Iron Man, and Get Smart. 

“There’s certainly things like, ‘I wish I’d done that,'” she shared. “[But] I step back and go, ‘That was the right person for that.'”

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McAdams and her partner Jamie Lindenhad have two children: a five-year-old son, and a daughter who they welcomed in late 2020.

Now, McAdams is only looking towards the future.

When asked about another Mean Girl movie, almost 20 years after the first film, she told Bustle, “I don’t see a way to shoehorn us in. [But] if Tina [Fey] can figure it out, I’m there, for sure.”

The actor is also about to reprise her role in the next Doctor Strange film after initially appearing in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

McAdams is emerging from her hiatus with a bang. Her new film, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is set to be released on April 28 and is based on the novel by Judy Blume. The story centres on a sixth-grader as she grapples with her changing body. The main character is also desperate to get her first bra while her mother, Barb – played by McAdams – will go without one for most of the movie.

“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 recalled. “[We] really wanted Barb to feel like a real person who’s still figuring herself out, to put Margaret and her on similar trajectories.”

While McAdams is coming back to Hollywood, it doesn’t seem like she’s all that interested in remaining there.

“I guess I always had a sense that it would be okay; either it’s going to work out or it’s not,” McAdams says of her career.

“[The break from acting] really helped me feel empowered. 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.”