Rachel McAdams says green is sexy
by Jean Kurlansky
Until a few years ago, Rachel McAdams rode everywhere on her bike. She liked the exercise – hey, a girl has to stay in shape – and liked not adding to her carbon footprint. “I didn’t even own a car,” she says. “I didn’t have a license.”
Then she almost got clobbered by a bus in Toronto. “I went the wrong way down a one-way street,” she admits. The native Canadian decided maybe it was time to drive.
Somehow that dose of realism has made her environmental aims all the stronger. She’s still riding, even in New York and Los Angeles, but putting more of her efforts into other projects with a bigger impact.
With two longtime friends, Didi Bethrum and Megan Kuhlmann, she has launched a website to counter the notion that environmentalism means Birkenstocks, bandannas, and smocks. Called greenissexy.org, it’s a fun tour of modest eco-choices. There’s a heavy emphasis on home-grown food, biodegradable products, and tips for using resources wisely. The tone is breezy, like three friends cutting up, because essentially that’s what it is.
“In addition to saving the planet,” Didi says she loves “anything pickled, and biking to work in heels, but I cannot stand the material velvet, so steer clear if you dare to wear.”
Some of the suggestions are admittedly risible. Do you really want to cut down on water use by peeing in the shower, or wear a bra made out of recycled plastic? Fortunately, parts of the site are explicitly for laughs.
Having grown up near the Great Lakes and having spent summers at a cottage, Rachel comes by her concerns naturally. “I look at the world through a green lens now, but you can’t make yourself crazy,” she told Vogue. “That feeling of green guilt can be really inhibiting. It’s about a changing mind-set, remembering to turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth.” She has remodeled her home to make it energy efficient, but her choices are often purely aesthetic. After a childhood of lake breezes, air conditioning doesn’t feel right to her: “I can’t live with it. I feel I’m not living in the world.”
But green jeans? Seriously? “It takes 2,600 gallons of water to make one pair of blue jeans. There are jeans that are sustainably made.”
Just before breaking into stardom with Mean Girls, she dyed her hair pink. Now she sets herself apart in other ways, by living simply – out of the spotlight as often as possible – and working on her craft as an actress. Hollywood tends to use beauty and throw it away, but she plans on being around for the long haul.
Guys will appreciate that she is formerly a vegetarian. No, wait…she’s a vegetarian again. Sexy either way.
