Sam Raimi has said that Rachel McAdams was “underused” in his 2022 Marvel movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In an interview with Total Film to promote their new movie Send Help, the director said he promised to work with her again after seeing her untapped talent in the MCU sequel. McAdams played Dr. Christine Palmer, Strange’s ex-girlfriend, but Raimi thought the part didn’t show off her skills enough.
Raimi was convinced of McAdams’s potential as a leading lady after seeing her fight ghosts in a key reshoots scene in Doctor Strange 2. He praised her energy and honesty, saying that it made the scene better even though there was a lot of animation. This moment led to her being cast as the main character in Send Help, a survival thriller with Dylan O’Brien in which she becomes a “dark terrible villain.”
In Send Help, McAdams plays a low-paid worker who is stuck on an island with her boss. This is very different from her role in the MCU. Raimi said that her warmth, humor, and inner “monster” would surprise audiences because it was so different from what they were used to seeing. McAdams said that her time on Doctor Strange was just a “taste” of Raimi’s style and that she wanted to work with him more.
