After months of speculation, Rachel McAdams has landed the hotly tipped role of Sheriff Ani Bezzerides on the second season of True Detective. McAdams, best known for her starring roles in The Notebook and Mean Girls, joins previously announced stars Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrelland Taylor Kitsch on author Nic Pizzolattos HBO drama series. McAdams character is described, per a press release, as a no-nonsense Venture County Sheriffs detective whose uncompromising ethics put her at odds with the system she serves, and whose troubled upbringing is to blame for her gambling and drinking problem.
Ever since Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson transformed themselves into Rust Cohle and Marty Hart during True Detectives critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated first season, practically every actor in Hollywood has been rumored to appear in the next installment of the anthology series. For the Bezzerides role, Mad Mens Elisabeth Moss, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Chastain, McAdams, Malin Ackerman, Jessica Biel, Brit Marling and most recently Keira Knightley were billedas the frontrunner to land the role at some point. However, Chastain immediately dismissed rumors of her involvement, as did Christian Bale when headlines tied him to one of the showslead male roles.
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According to Variety, McAdams had long been favored for the role but a scheduling conflict with the film Spotlight, about the Catholic Church sex scandal, prevented her from committing toTrue Detective immediately; a compromise had been reached that would allow the actress to handle both projects.
As Pizzolatto previously revealed, True Detective will depart from the mysticism and general foreboding environs of swampy post-Katrina Louisiana and travel to sunnyCalifornia for awhodunit that revolves around three police officers and a career criminal who navigate a web of conspiracy in the aftermath of a murder, Variety reports. The victim is rumored to be Ben Caspar, a corrupt city manager whos working with Vaughns Frank Semyon on a massive transportation dealinvolving a high-speed railway.
The Fast and the Furious series director Justin Lin will helm the first two episodes ofTrue Detectives second season. Actress Kelly Reilly, best known for her roles in the Sherlock Holmes films (in which she starred alongside McAdams) and the Denzel Washington drama Flight, has also been cast as Jordan Semyon, an aspiring actress and the wife of Vaughns character.