Rachel McAdams and a Venetian masquerade ball | Here Comes the Sun

Welcome, I'm Lee Cowan and this is Here Comes the Sun, a closer look at some of the people, places, and things we bring you every weekend on Sunday morning. Rachel McAdams stars in the film adaptation of the Blubb Judy Blume novel. Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret. It's a movie fans have wanted since the book came out in 1970, but the author wouldn't allow it until now. Tracy Smith sat down with the actor You read a lot of books when you were a kid, yeah? I did when I was little. We met McAdams at Annabelle's Book Club in Los Angeles, a store that carries, what else, books for young adults. People love this book. Judy Blume wouldn't let anyone make a movie about it for 50 years. So did you feel that pressure? Yeah, just a little bit. We all just wanted to make Judy proud, really. Later in the show, Rachel McAdams on her first long-distance flight at the age of 21. You get your first movie, 21 years old, and they fly you to Sicily, and that was the first time you'd been on an airplane? I had actually been on one airplane with my grandmother when I was seven, but that was to Ottawa from London, Ontario, so it was like a 30-minute flight. So this was like the first real deal, yeah, a flight from Toronto all the way to Italy by myself. What did that do to you, 21 years old, boom? Well, I thought the plane was going down. I was like, of course. I got my first movie. I'm on cloud nine, and the turbulence was so bad. I mean, the beverages are spilling everywhere, and I'm looking around, and everyone's sleeping. Then Seth Dome brings us a behind-the-scenes look at the lavish balls of Venice Carnival, a festival rooted in centuries of tradition. This ball is an hours-long feast for the eyes, and yes, dinner, too. There are some logistical challenges, like large dresses blocking the route. With hawk-like intensity, Antonia Sauter watches every over-the-top detail. Could you do this like this anywhere else in the world? When somebody arrived to Venice, immediately, the fairy tale began. The city takes you in a very special and magical mood. That's all coming up right here on Here Comes the Sun. You may know Rachel McAdams from hit films like The Notebook and Mean Girls, but you might not know she turned down lead roles in other big movies, like The Devil Wears Prada, and walked away from Hollywood at what looked like the height of her career. Tracy Smith has more. Growing up is fun. Who can forget that special time when things were starting to happen? She's changing from a child into an adult, and it's a little confusing at times. We've all seen films like Molly Grows Up, but the book that might've described those times best is Judy Blume's landmark and often controversial 1970 novel, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. Just do this one thing for me. Let me just be normal and regular like everybody else. Just please, please, please, please, please, please, please. Now, Blume's tale of adolescent angst is a feature film. Abby writer Fortson is Margaret. Hmm, barely a 28, not even a double A. And her understanding mom is Oscar-nominated actor Rachel McAdams. How's that feel? I cannot wait to take it off. Yeah, welcome to womanhood. You read a lot of books when you were a kid, yeah? I did when I was little. We met McAdams at Annabelle's Book Club in Los Angeles, a store that carries, what else, books for young adults. People love this book. Judy Blume wouldn't let anyone make a movie about it for 50 years. So, did you feel that pressure? Yeah, just a little bit. We all just wanted to make Judy proud, really. We're getting committees together over at the junior high, and I can think of at least three that you'd be perfect for. Oh, Jan, that sounds great. McAdams does herself proud as a woman trying to balance motherhood and career. I don't want to. She's the queen bee. It's a far cry from her breakout role as the utterly toxic Regina George. Sit down. Meanest of the mean girls. You're, like, really pretty. Thank you. So you agree? What? You think you're really pretty. I remember where I was when I read that script for the first time, and I put it down, and I immediately called my manager and said, please, I will do anything to be any part in this movie. Any part. Give me one line. Get in, loser. We're going shopping. But she couldn't be more different than the diva you see on screen. Born and raised in a working-class family in Ontario, Canada, Rachel McAdams loved theater, but she was also an accomplished figure skater with a part-time job in fast food. One of your first jobs was working at McDonald's? Mm-hmm. What did that teach you? It taught me hard work, and I was kind of a bit of a germaphobe when I started working at McDonald's, and then I kind of got over that. Not that it's particularly dirty or anything. I was kind of like an obsessive hand washer when I was younger, which was really terrible as a figure skater because washing your hands all the time at the ice rink and then going out with wet hands on the ice, I mean, my hands were a mess. Can you still eat McDonald's now? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love it. When I was pregnant, I said to my partner, one night we came out of a movie here in LA, and I said, it was like 11 o'clock at night, and I was like, take me to the first McDonald's. I want a fish filet and a chocolate milkshake. And he was like, oh, yeah, we were pregnant. But between McDonald's and motherhood, she broke hearts in Hollywood. I waited for you for seven years. It's too late. The Notebook, which came out in 2004, the same year as Mean Girls, is a film some people can't even talk about without choking up. War isn't over. It still isn't over. Hi, my name is Rachel McAdams. Even as she read for the role opposite Ryan Gosling, as we see in her audition tape, she had a feeling it was hers. I will always love you, no doubt. When you were in that audition, did you know, oh, I got this? I felt like my life was about to change. Did it change? It did, it did. Claire, will you wait just a second? In fact, it seemed that she was suddenly everywhere. In movies big and small. But McAdams says it might have been too much, too fast. There's Wedding Crashers, Red Eye, Family Stone. And then you left. I didn't make a conscious decision to leave necessarily, but I did kind of make a decision to pause. I didn't think I was dealing so well with my life changing so quickly. And being so much in the public eye, I was struggling with that a little bit, with the exposure. It did allow me to just find myself, center myself in it, and know I could live without it if I had to. If suddenly tomorrow they all decide, you suck, you can't be here anymore, you're out of the club. Well, I left the club first. And she did leave for about two years and turned down parts in movies like The Devil Wears Prada and Iron Man. But when she came back, it wasn't for a star vehicle. She just wanted to be a working actor. Hi there, I'm looking for Ronald Paquin. Yes. Your father, Paquin? Her performance in 2015's Spotlight as a Boston Globe reporter on the hunt for pedophile Catholic priests, earned her an Oscar nod. You're moving. And now she's found another fulfilling role. What? Really, Mom? Sylvia. Alongside Kathy Bates as a mom. She was putting it together. I don't think she was. It's so moving. She shot Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret just after the birth of her second child. And as you're playing this character, you're balancing motherhood and your career. It was real method acting, I guess. Yeah, it was breastfeeding and pumping on the side. And my daughter was five months old, I think, at the time. And so, you know, I just had to give the signal. This is the pumping signal? It's time. Yes, it's time. They go, okay, you go right ahead. It's clear she enjoys her life right now. Rachel McAdams has found what works. And if it doesn't, there's always the door. Do you think you might take another step back at some point? I don't know. For me, acting doesn't feel easy. Like, it always feels like, oh, I don't know what I'm doing. And, you know, I never feel like I can totally relax doing it. So, you know, doing a project or two a year really, you know, it fills my cup. Right now, I'm not feeling like I'm needing to shut it down. Up next, an exclusive excerpt from Rachel McAdams' chat. Something you can only see right here on CBS News Stream. Stay with us. As promised, here's more from Tracy Smith's chat with Rachel McAdams. You said you could relate to Margaret. Did you have those awkward, unsure moments in high school? Most of them. I think we're awkward and unsure. It's kind of all a blur, but, you know. Yes, definitely awkward, not feeling very cool, wondering if you're normal, trying to fit in, wanting to be seen, all these great themes that Judy touched on and, you know, that we all still feel sometimes. That's what I love about the film is, you know, you see through Margaret's mother's eyes and through her grandmother's eyes that, you know, sometimes those things, they just shift into something else. We're sort of always trying to find ourselves and reevaluating and, yeah, it's pretty universal for all ages. Your parents were not stage parents. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Apparently I had long, long, long lost relatives who did Shakespeare in England, which my grandmother gave me black and white photocopies of, so I have those in my little treasure box, but no, my mom was a nurse and my dad was a, he likes to call her relocation engineer, he was a mover. A mover, and he called it relocation engineer? Yes. I love that. And he was, he was very good at it. He moved me a lot. Oh, did he? It was very handy when I was moving once a year. That is very handy as the itinerant actor. Yes, oh yes, no, he saved my life, saved my butt a few times. You get your first movie, 21 years old, and they fly you to Sicily, and that was the first time you'd been on an airplane? I had actually been on one airplane with my grandmother when I was seven, but that was to Ottawa from London, Ontario, so it was like a 30 minute flight. So this was like the real first real deal, yeah, a flight from Toronto all the way to Italy by myself. What did that do to you, 21 years old, boom. Well, I thought the plane was going down. I was like, of course, I got my first movie, I'm on cloud nine, and the turbulence was so bad. I mean, you know, like the beverages are spilling everywhere, and I'm looking around, and everyone's sleeping. So I was like, okay, I guess this is normal. So, but I just had no clue what was happening, and I was trying to learn Italian because I had to speak Italian in the film, I didn't speak any Italian, and eating my Italian desserts and my gelato, and reading the newspaper, it was like free newspaper. I mean, I really did have a nice time once I realized we weren't gonna die. You were gonna be okay. Yeah. And that gelato thing became a regular habit? Yeah, you mean like in Italy? Yes. Yes, you have to eat gelato every day in Italy, and they also had, in Sicily they do, where they put it on a bun, like a nice, almost like a hot dog bun, but it's kind of sweet. So you'd have a gelato sandwich every day to just shake it up a bit, and yeah, it was magical. I really got spoiled on my first movie. Wow, yeah, what a first job. Yeah. To be able to do that. It really was. Talk about Mean Girls for a second. Regina George, the director, told you to watch a certain movie and listen to certain music to get into the character of Regina George? Yeah, yes. Yeah, he told me to watch Alec Baldwin's performance in Glengarry Glen Ross, and to listen to a lot of Hole, to listen to a lot of Courtney Love, and just like really tap into that angsty teenage energy. Yeah, and it worked, I think. And it worked. It felt like it was, I felt angry. Oh, it worked. I mean, it's amazing to me, because my 15-year-old daughter knows Regina George, and I swear her 15-year-old daughter is going to know Regina George. What do you think the lasting impact of that character is? Yeah, I mean, we all, most of us, I feel like, have a Regina George in our lives. It resonates. Do people still say lines to you on a regular basis? Yeah, yeah, in this bookstore, they have a shirt that says, get in the car, loser, we're going to the bookstore, which is based on a Mean Girls line. I was like, that's so great. And it was so funny. That was such a one-off line one day. I mean, I think I hadn't slept enough or something, and I just had no energy behind me, and you just never know the life these things are gonna take on. It's so funny to look back. Did you improv that line? I didn't. I was just kind of laissez-faire that day, and I don't know. I mean, I actually lived right behind the house where we were shooting in Toronto, or sorry, right behind the school we were shooting at in Toronto. It was an abandoned school, and I lived right behind it. I was like 26 years old. I lived on my own. I was the oldest girl in the show by quite a bit, and I would go home and have a nap, go on my lunch break, and then just come walk back to work. It was great. That's nice. It was really nice, so it could've been one of those days. You've just woken up from a nap. Yeah. Well, yeah, you're supposed to be mean, so it works. Right. She doesn't care. Regina does what she wants, yeah. How do you define success? Wow, yeah, that's a tricky one. I feel like finding balance for me, riding that middle somehow between work and home life, and feeling like I'm present in both when I'm there, and beyond that, I mean, it's all exterior, but my family's happy, and I feel like I'm being pushed and stretched. You know, for now, that feels my version of success. Anything that you would tell that seven-year-old who was hiding under the bed, scared to tell her parents that she wanted to be an actor? You can come out from under the bed. You're not gonna be in trouble. It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be surprised. You're gonna be, it's gonna be exciting. You're gonna go on a great adventure, so just hang in there for another, how many years did it take? It's not gonna be as fast as you hoped, but relatively quick in the grand scheme of life. Up next, having a ball in Venice. Welcome back. In Venice, Italy's famous Carnival Festival is known around the world for its elaborate costumes, masks, and balls. Seth Dohn got an inside look at what it takes to create and dress for such a grand event. Leslie Deckard's arrival by water taxi was certainly the most colorful leg of the journey she took with her husband, Lon, thousands of miles from home. We're a long way from Florida. Very, but we're still in Venice. While there is a Venice, Florida, the Deckard's destination was this former Maritime Republic in Italy, and a Carnival time event where period costumes, even for reporters, are mandatory. I'm excited to get inside and see whether Antonia has in store for us this year. It's their third pilgrimage to this masquerade ball, a fantasy land imagined by Antonia Sauter. Here we are. My dream has been turned into reality. She's a seamstress who began designing events 30 years ago, creating ever more extravagant backdrops for her ever more extravagant costumes. We met Leslie Deckard as she was choosing hers. Fun to play dress up. A certain correspondent might agree. The perfect touch. When you put it on, it transports you to a different time. Masquerade balls have been held across Europe since the 1300s. They became popular in Venice during the Renaissance, especially during Carnival, ahead of the more sober period of Lent. This modern incarnation called Il Balo del Doge is a nod to the Doge who ruled the Venetian Republic from the 7th century until Napoleon's troops came in 1797. Chi era il Doge? Who was the Doge? Il Doge era la massima carica politica. The Doge was the highest political officer, Daniele Danza told us. He was also the symbol of Venice. Danza, curator of the Doge's Palace Museum, explained the Doge would sit beneath this work by Tintoretto. The Doge would sit here. Directly below the image of Christ. Not so subtle symbolism. When we think of Venice, why do we think of scenes like this, this opulence? Evidently, it was a way of demonstrating one's power. Venice could not compete with the great kingdoms. It managed to survive in part, he said, because of the extraordinary fascination that Venice has always exerted on the foreign visitor. That fascination holds today. We're not usually quite this dressed up at home. A golf shirt and sandals. Generally, that's what you're in. Yeah, well, that's floor to formal. This ball is an hours-long feast for the eyes, and yes, dinner, too. There are some logistical challenges, like large dresses blocking the route. With hawk-like intensity, Antonia Sauter watches every over-the-top detail. Could you do this like this anywhere else in the world? When somebody arrives to Venice, immediately, the fairy tale begins. The city takes you in a very special and magical mood. But for a price, tickets can cost upwards of $5,000. Isn't all of this a little out of touch? No, first of all, because Il Ballo del Doge means, for Venice, lots of work for a lot of people. The city must be populated by young people and stimulate creativity, craft, art. Sauter told us she employs up to 300 people to pull this off. It's not out of touch. World without joy is not a good world. It's a fleeting chance to indulge in the decadence of another time. It's a 5,000-mile trip from Florida to journey back centuries. Until you see it, I think you'll understand how it just cannot be communicated. ♪ The sun's shining, the sun's shining ♪ I'm Lee Cowan. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you right here next time on Here Comes the Sun.