Movies
Rachel McAdams talks Judy Blume in wake of upcoming ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ film
McAdams spoke about her upcoming role in the film adaptation of Blume’s book ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’.
Rachel McAdams is set to star in the upcoming film ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’, which is an adaptation of Judy Blume’s book of the same name.
McAdams, who will be playing Margaret’s mother, Barbara Simon, spoke about her experience when reading the script for the first time.
“I remember where I was when I read the script for the first time and I put it down, and immediately called my manager and said, ‘Please, I will do anything to be any part in this movie… Give me one line!’” she said.
When asked if she felt any pressure, McAdams said, “Yeah, just a little bit! We all wanted to make Judy proud, really.”
McAdams believes the story is an important one to tell
The book has been both praised and scrutinized for discussing sexual and religious topics, but McAdams believes that it’s an important story to tell.
“It’s not just for girls to feel seen and heard but for boys too,” McAdams said. “It’s to normalize something that is so normal.
“The idea that the word ‘period’ might be banned in schools is – I can’t wrap my brain around that. Knowledge is power and the more knowledge you have of your body, the more power you have over your body.”
It took 50 years for Blume to greenlight the film
Blume has prevented a movie adaptation of her ‘Margaret’ book for 50 years.
“I got a lot of calls from Hollywood,” Blume told The Chronicle. “But then I took ‘Margaret’ off the table. I said, ‘I’m never doing this. Not every book has to be a movie.’
“I just didn’t think it would ever be done in the way that I would have felt proud of it.”
However, things changed when she received an email from Fremon Craig in 2018. Apparently, Blume was a fan of his movie ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ which, similar to ‘Margaret’, tells a coming-of-age story through the perspective of an adolescent girl.
“It just felt right,” Blume said of the meeting she had with Craig following his email. “And just look at what I got after 50-something years. It feels perfect.”