Season 2 of HBO’s critical hit True Detective will offer a slew possibilities in terms of casting. While Season 1 focused on a small team of two detectives, Season 2 will focus on cops from three different areas trying to solve a murder mystery that leads to more bodies piling up. One of the series leads is reportedly going to be played by a woman, and word on the street is that About Time’s Rachel McAdams is vying for a role alongside the earlier announced Elisabeth Moss.
Yesterday, the rumor mill focused on Justin Lin directing one or two episodes of True Detective during Season 2. Along with that news, Variety is now saying that McAdams and Moss are both “in the running” for the female lead. “In the running” is a long way off from “in talks,” so I’d be sure to take the news with a grain of salt, but personally, I hope McAdams or Moss do work out. Both are perfect for a grim police drama, but in very different ways.
Moss has the pedigree to play a tough cookie. She’s been playing a woman in a man’s world for as long as we’ve known her on Mad Men. We also know she rocks in detective dramas. In the solid and highly under-watched Top of the Lake, Moss plays Detective Robin Griffith, a woman looking into the disappearance of a 12 year-old girl. That show, like True Detective really looks introspectively into lead characters, so we know Moss would have no problem with the role. She’s a solid choice, but I’d almost like to see McAdams take the gig.
Signing on to True Detective would be a much chancier gig for McAdams, whose career has been filled with romances and romance-based comedies. She’s most famous for The Notebook, but more recently McAdams has headlined About Time and The Vow, and her feistiest role, as Irene Adler in The Sherlock Holmes movies, is still romance-based. So, why do I think she would be a great fit to play a cop? Nearly a decade ago, we saw her grapple for her life in Red Eye, a movie where her charming dimples were turned off as she took on tougher acting material. Plus, she’s tried to vary her resume a bit recently, taking on a role as a lawyer in A Most Wanted Man and True Detective could go a long way to cement her as a serious leading actress.
Of course, there could be room for both women on the show. Earlier when we reported on Moss’ potential casting, we noted she might be up for the Ani Bezzerides, which would mean she’d be playing a tough cookie detective. At the time, The Killing’s Michelle Forbes was said to be up for a role as one of the wives or ex-wives on the show, which means McAdams could be stuck in a wifely role this time around. I’d love to see True Detective go against typecast and give McAdams something meaty to chew on, but we’ll have to wait and see. The way Variety mentioned the castings makes it seem like McAdams and Moss are vying for the same role, but with the castings and characters in the rumor stage at this point, it would be easy for information to get mixed up.
Regardless, it’ll be a while before we get new episodes of True Detective. On the bright side, HBO recently released a really nice Blu-ray set for the first season of the series.
