Rachel McAdams Puked During The ‘True Detective’ Shootout Scene — But Not For The Reason You’d Think

The new season of HBO’s True Detective has fans on the edge of their seat, and apparently it has a pretty strong effect on its actors as well. One of the stars of the show, Rachel McAdams, claims that she thew up during the filming of one of True Detective’s especially intense scenes. But the reason why might surprise you.

According to Variety, the shootout scene in the third episode was so physically demanding that Rachel McAdams lost her lunch on set.

“That one took about five days,” Rachel McAdams said. “That was pretty intense. I actually puked during that scene. When I was running and reloading my gun—it actually wound up being about 200 yards, it was like two football fields—and I was just going all out and we did it a couple of times.”

But it wasn’t because of all the carnage happening in the scene; it was because of the vitamins Rachel McAdams had been taking. Of course, all the non-stop running played a big part, but Rachel says the vomiting was mostly a result of what she put in her body.

“It was my own fault. I had been drinking that Emergen-C and going hard to just try to keep my energy up. Not a good combination, the running and that. But I kind of felt bada**. Like yeah, let’s do it again. It was really fun though. I like action. I like being thrust into that.”

In fact, Rachel McAdams did her best to prepare for the physical requirements of the action-packed sequence, including a training regimen to build her stamina — but it didn’t work.

“I was running in my spare time to be in shape for it,” McAdams said. “A lot of good it did me.”

Vanity Fair pointed out that it might have added some realism to the show if the editors of True Detective had left in the scene where Rachel McAdams vomits on camera, because it would be a reasonable visceral reaction to all the violence. But perhaps the filmmakers wanted McAdams’ character to keep her cool, even when tens of people are shot to death.

Rachel McAdams claims she hasn’t been keeping track of the fan reaction to the shootout scene, despite the effect it had on her. But she says that being “in the dark” about it might ultimately be a good thing.

Catch Rachel McAdams on True Detective on HBO on Sundays at 9pm.

For more on Rachel McAdams, hear what she has to say about her new boyfriend Taylor Kitsch.

[Images courtesy of HBO and Vanity Fair]