When critics and film fans were making lists at the end of the 2010s, Game Night frequently came up as one of the best comedy movies of the decade, and Rachel McAdams was mentioned as giving one of the best performances. But it turns out that McAdams did not realise that one line delivery of hers in particular has become a viral meme.
Following her breakout year in 2004, when she starred in two classics – teen movie Mean Girls and romance movie The Notebook – McAdams has now become a respected dramatic actress. She has starred in drama movies such as State of Play, To the Wonder, Southpaw, Disobedience, and was Oscar-nominated for Spotlight. However, she has probably starred in more comedy movies, such as Wedding Crashers, The Family Stone, Morning Glory, About Time, and Eurovision.
While on the red carpet promoting Marvel’s Doctor Strange 2, in which she plays Dr Christine Palmer, a journalist from IndieWire brought up her deadpan delivery of the line; “Oh no, he died” in Game Night. McAdams was unaware it had become an “internet thing,” and was pleasantly surprised.
“Wow, thank you!” McAdams said, once she was assured of the enduring popularity of the line, four years after the movie came out. “Tell my agent. I’m just kidding. That’s so funny, but wait, just that line or the whole scene?” She then reflected on filming the scene, in which a baddy gets dramatically sucked into a jet engine. “We were on a tarmac in the middle of Georgia and it was probably about four in the morning, so that may have added to the feeling. I don’t know, but that’s very funny. Well, thank you for telling me. That’s nice to know!”
As well as comedy and drama movies, McAdams is also known for a very niche sub-genre – she has played the wife, girlfriend or other “emotional support” to a time-traveling man no less than four times – in The Time Traveler’s Wife, Midnight in Paris, About Time, and Doctor Strange.
If you’re a fan of traveling through space and time, check out our guide to the best science fiction movies.