Northern Belle

In constant demand since her big-screen break six years ago, the Hollywood actress Rachel McAdams talks to John Hiscock about her celluloid quest for love and stability in The Time Traveller's Wife, and the good and the bad of filming in her Canadian hometown. Rachel McAdams is musing about love, both on screen and in her own life. It is not a subject the beautiful Canadian actress enjoys discussing but it is one she is asked to elaborate on frequently, partly because it has, of course, formed the basis for most of her films, including her latest, The Time Traveller's Wife and, particularly, because she is currently romantically unattached.

"You don't get to choose whom you love," she says thoughtfully. "That just happens. That's just chemical and somewhat fated, I think. Sometimes you have an instant connection with someone and sometimes you know there's something there and you have to sort of coax it out. And everyone operates at a different speed." She pauses, thinks about what she has just said and nods in approval. "Yeah." In The Time Traveller's Wife she plays Clare, an attractive young heiress who has been in love with a librarian named Henry (played by Eric Bana) her whole life. He is cursed with a genetic condition that causes him to time-travel unpredictably, forcing them apart with no warning. Despite the complications these sudden and involuntary disappearances bring to their relationship, Clare believes they are destined to be together and desperately tries to build a future with him.

The film, which was co-produced by Brad Pitt, is based on the 2003 best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger, which was written as a metaphor for failed relationships. It is by definition a sentimental and somewhat credulity-stretching story and the movie is far more likely to appeal to women than to men, although McAdams has no doubts about its emotional pull. "I thought it was a beautiful love story and I was intrigued by the character of Clare, so when the movie came about I was excited at the prospect of playing her," she says. "She's full of fascinating contradictions because she seeks out the extraordinary and falls in love with a time traveller, but she also desperately wants some stability in her life. She is committed to her man but wants to have a normal marriage and home life.

"I think that a love that can withstand the biggest obstacles is inspiring and the obstacle Clare and Henry face is an incredible, challenging one." It was a cue for the obvious question: does Rachel want stability, a normal marriage and home life? She laughs and dodges the subject, although abruptly disappearing from someone's life is something she can easily relate to. "Everyone was asking me how I could relate to a time-travelling husband and make it real, but actors are gypsies and we're constantly going in and out of our lives and jumping into others. As a person who travels a lot, I hope that the person I am with would be patient with me, because that's the nature of my life."

We're meeting in a suite at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where the 30-year-old actress is taking a break from filming the comedy Morning Glory with Harrison Ford. McAdams, who was born in London, Ontario, looks every inch the glamorous movie star in a grey silk off-the-shoulder ensemble, with her dark hair hanging on her shoulders. She has an appealing, down-to-earth naturalness and laughs easily.

She has been in constant demand since her film breakthrough six years ago in Mean Girls, and to get away from the glare of publicity in Canada and the US, she travels the world, even when she is not working. After returning from London where she filmed Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law earlier this year, she took off for an extended holiday in New Zealand, hiking and exploring remote parts of the country.

She was mountain-climbing when the news came through that she had been named 2009 female star of the year by North American cinema owners. "I was really excited and kind of shocked because I wasn't expecting it," she says. "I was kind of on another planet altogether and I'd just come off a mountain." The Time Travellers's Wife was filmed in Toronto, where McAdams has a home, and says she found working in the familiar location to be a mixed blessing.

On the one hand she was able to live at home but she also had to deal with the responsibilities that came with it. "It was so great to film at home because I got to sleep in and get out of bed and walk to work," she says. "I really got to know Ontario in a different way because we shot some scenes a little bit outside Toronto. But there's a downside because when you're on location you jump out of your life, but when you're filming at home there are no excuses for not getting the bed made and not making the rounds and visiting people and living your regular life.

"So in a sense you're living two lives when you film where you live and sometimes it's nice to be able to separate the two." She began acting at the age of 10, appearing in Shakespeare productions with a local theatre group. "I'm from a very close-knit family and there was something very? I guess you could say normal about it and I so appreciate that. We all ate dinner together every single night and my mom stayed at home with us. I owe a lot to my parents and I don't know if I'll be able to offer the same to my family, but I hope I can because I think it's really cool and we don't see it that much any more."

As a child she was a talented figure skater and for a while it was a big part of her life as she competed successfully in the sport throughout high school, winning several awards. "It's strange but it seems like a lifetime ago," she says. "I don't know if I could do it now because it's not like riding a bike. It takes practice to get back into the swing of it. For the first half of my life it was sport, sport, nothing but sport. But then my life changed and now my passions are food and travel and film and yoga."

She studied drama at York University in Toronto, appearing in numerous student films before making the leap to television. She made her feature film debut in 2001 with a co-starring role in My Name Is Tanino but came to the attention of worldwide audiences when she played a pair of catty teen queens in 2004's The Hot Chick and Mean Girls. It was while she was filming the romantic drama The Notebook in 2004 that she began an off-screen romance with her co-star and fellow Canadian, Ryan Gosling. The pair had a three-year relationship but split in 2007. She has no firm romantic attachment at the moment and says she enjoys her independence. "I read somewhere that a woman should live alone for at least a year and I think that's really good advice. It's good to spend some time with yourself and get to know who you are."

After The Notebook she established herself as an eye-catching and versatile actress in projects as varied as The Wedding Crashers, Red Eye and The Family Stone, but her career slowed in 2006 when she decided to take a break to spend some time at home in Canada with her family and friends. She returned last year with The Lucky Ones and State Of Play with Russell Crowe, which was released earlier this year.

She says she enjoyed her winter in England portraying the duplicitous Irene Adler in Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes adaptation, working with Downey and Law. "We spent a lot of time together in a little trailer parked outside the set," she recalls with a smile. "We'd meet there in the mornings and have a great little think tank where we'd explore what we were doing and we'd go there in our lunch hours to eat and talk about the script and get warm. They both work so hard and they're such inspiring people to be around."

She has always picked her projects carefully and turned down offers many other actors would have gratefully accepted, including co-starring roles in Casino Royale, Iron Man and The Dark Knight. She has just finished filming Morning Glory, a comedy-drama set in a television newsroom, and is constantly grateful for the life acting has given her. "I love my job and love having to quickly learn how to be a whole new person with a whole new life," she says. "I feel very, very lucky to be working. The film industry's going through changes and it's a hard business to be employed in and I feel very blessed. I think working on a variety of films and choosing different roles helps, and to me one of the greatest things about acting is seeing how far away from yourself you can get while still connecting with your emotional core."

With the luxury of being able to pick and choose her roles and return to Canada whenever she wants, McAdams is feeling happily relaxed about her life and career. "I like my life," she says simply. "I think things get a little easier when you hit your third decade. Something just changes and I guess you learn to go with the flow and take life as it comes. You've got to just try and do the things you love and hope it works out.

"I'm having fun right now. I'm learning to love the present. I think there's a lot of clarity that comes with time. "Good things come from knowing yourself really well and I'm enjoying the evolution, slowly but surely." The Time Traveller's Wife opens on September 17 in the UAE.