This is our 3rd post as part of our 8 year anniversary celebration. If you missed our first two be sure to read catch up with them in our previous posts. And read after the jump/inside to find out our 3rd reason why we are a fan of Rachel.

Rachel was born in London, Ontario and grew up in St. Thomas, Ontario and moved to Toronto when she when she attended York University. Rachel still calls Toronto her hometown. She likes to go back to Toronto in between movies to “unwind and reconnect with family and friends“.

When growing up she used to work at McDonald’s for 3 summers, just like her brother Daniel and her sister Kayleen. She even broke the orange machine once. She was also involved in doing theater (Shakespeare) at a young age in her hometown. She loves to “go back and do that again. It would be different at 28 than it was at 13“.

She usually only goes to Los Angeles for work. She owns a home – which she bought after “Mean Girls” (2004) – in Toronto, which she shares with her brother Daniel but they both have their own kitchen and bathroom. She thinks “it’s how married people should live“.

“[…] Having a house that’s always falling apart was so romantic when I bought it, but now seems less so.”
–Rachel McAdams, Vogue (2009)

Rachel’s Canadian productions were all shot in Toronto or Canada including “Perfect Pie” (2002) and Guilt by Association (2002). “Mean Girls” (2004), “Married Life” (2007), “The Time Traveler’s Wife” (2009) and “The Vow” (2012) were all shot in Toronto so she could go back home after work. She showed her co-star Channing Tatum around while filming “The Vow” and even took him ice skating.

She doesn’t own a car and her bike is her vehicle of choice in Toronto. She was even able to ride back home with her bike while filming “The Vow“, her co-star Channing Tatum made fun of her bike helmet but ended up buying a bike himself to drive around in Toronto.

“I feel very much at home there [in Toronto]. I ride my bike everywhere. I have my favorite restaurants. My perfect day is riding my bike to an amazing cinema called the Lightbox, then having a glass of wine and a quinoa salad.”
–Rachel McAdams, Stella (2012)

Rachel is still involved in Canadian causes, like The Sunday Foundation of Canada and United Way Toronto. She thinks Toronto is “the strongest community” she has. She is “able to go to the same places and see the same people. My family’s close by. I get along with my neighbors. It’s really nice“. She was also spotted, like we wrote in our first post, at the Occupy movement in Toronto.

Rachel revealed in her Vogue interview in 2009 that she took a knife skills workshop in Good Egg, a small kitchenware store in Kensington Market in Toronto to improve her skills (“I really wanted to learn the proper way to julienne a carrot. And now I can, and I love it.”) She also takes Yoga classes, which she also tries to take on location, when she is home.

Her knife skills class is not the only class she takes because she sees making movies as “an excuse to take classes“. Fun fact: she got a certification to sail for “Wedding Crashers” (2005) but it turned out she didn’t need any training for the actual scene in the movie.

Rachel is known in South-Korea as the ‘kind Rachel McAdams’ because of a set of candids back in 2006. She was waiting for a bus and a Korean couple ask her direction, which is kindly gave them.

“I was born in Ontario but I also went to Connecticut. More and more Americans creating movies and they find it pleasant to make them in our country. The Canadians crews are the best in the world.”
-Rachel McAdams, Premiere (2011)

She is still proud to be a Canadian, she celebrates Canadian holidays like Canadian thanksgiving and Canada Day. She even meets up with fellow Canadians on Canada Day in Los Angeles to celebrate it. She attended the Toronto International Film Festival several times and two films (“Married Life” and “The Lucky Ones“) of hers got selected for the festival.

Go to our press archive to read more interviews, she often mentions living in Toronto. If you want more in-depth information on the Canadian supported causes Rachel supports go to our information page.