It’s often easy to think of Rachel Nichols as someone who stars primarily in horror movies, but of course, there’s a lot more to her career than that.
Over more than two decades, she has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. There are plenty of scary ones on the list, like The Amityville Horror, P2, Pandemic and her latest movie, The Inheritance (now streaming). However, she’s also shown up in Sex and the City, Alias, Charlie Wilson’s War and Star Trek, in which she was painted green. There was also the four years she spent as the lead of the Canadian sci-fi drama Continuum.
The Augusta, Maine native doesn’t do a lot of comedies, but since she’s so lighthearted and such a big laugher, maybe she should. Nichols took a break from shooting a movie in Kansas City to chat with us.
How did you start acting in the first place?
I went from Cony High School in Augusta, Maine to Columbia University in New York City. I loved it immediately. I got a job at Abercrombie & Fitch at South Street Seaport to spend money. I told my parents I wanted to go to business school at Columbia, and my dad said, “Listen, we figured out a way to pay for your undergrad, but you’re on your own for grad school.” I thought that was fair, and I also knew that my job at Abercrombie & Fitch wasn’t going to pay my way through grad school, primarily because I used all my paychecks to buy Abercrombie & Fitch. (Laughs)
I ended up starting to model. I was making money and I had the opportunity to move to Paris and work in Europe. I came back and then I was doing commercials. The commercial agent I had said “Do you want to act?” I said, “Sure. Whatever is gonna get me money for grad school.”
She sent me on an audition for Sex and the City for one episode and I ended up booking it. It was called “A ‘Vogue’ Idea,” and I still get recognized for it. I ended up having a wonderful time on set that day and I left saying I need to pursue this but I also need to take acting classes, which I did.
When I graduated from Columbia, I had done a movie, which was coming out after I graduated. My parents said, “If you want to try this acting thing, now’s the time to do it. You’ve got your degree. Now’s the time to do it.” This is the first time that parents ever said, “Hey, don’t take that nice bank job you were offered.” (Laughs) I moved to LA and I started working.
Is grad school still in the cards?
(Laughs) I’ve got the money to pay for grad school at Columbia now. Not sure that’s gonna happen, but that’s how it got me where I am.
I feel like you skipped over something there, when you said, “I started modeling.” Was it that simple?
Well, it’s just a very involved story, between being stopped on the street multiple times, and the Maine girl in me, I’ve been told, “Don’t trust these scary people.” Then I was meeting a friend downtown. I ended up going early and running into him and this woman that he was meeting who ran an agency.
While we were having lunch, she texted him to bring me over to her office afterward. She said, “Can I send an agent out with you? Just out in the streets? Take a couple of Polaroids?” I’ve seen those Polaroids. I own one of those Polaroids. I was a hot mess, but they offered me the chance to be represented by them. And I thought, “Okay, well, my friend Michael knows the people that run it, so this isn’t a scam.” That’s how the modeling part started.
It seems like you haven’t stopped working for 20-plus years.
I’ve been very, very fortunate to be busy. I was the lead on Continuum for four years, and I love that show so dearly. I wish it was still going today.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with some fantastic actors. I played Nicolas Cage’s wife, I worked with Bruce Willis and I’ve taken very tiny roles in big things because I don’t care about the size of the role. I care about the quality of the character.
I’m only in Charlie Wilson’s War for five minutes total of that whole movie, but it was directed by the late, great Mike Nichols, with Tom Hanks, and Julia Roberts and the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. I was 26 and 27 at the time. It was insane. I’m on set on these big stages, shooting these big-time movies with ice sculptures and fancy food at lunch. I mean, I worked on that movie for six weeks, and I was in it for five minutes, and I did not care. It was amazing.
Rachel Nichols working for Mike Nichols must’ve been great.
I auditioned right before I went to Toronto to shoot P2. The casting agent had called me back and said, “Listen, I’m gonna have you come back next week,” and I said, “I’m leaving in three days to go to Toronto to do P2.” She’s like, “Okay, I’m gonna have you come back in tomorrow.” She told me exactly what to wear because she knew that Mike wouldn’t be able to meet me and he very rarely casts people that he hadn’t met yet.
I went back the next day, did the audition and got the job when I was in Toronto. On my first day of Charlie Wilson’s War, I’m at craft service, which is where you can always find me because it’s where the food is. I get a tap on my shoulder and I turn around and it’s Mike Nichols. Now, I don’t get starstruck, but for him, I’m weak in the knees. He said to me, “I hear that you’re my daughter,” and I just looked at him.
I don’t know where 27-year-old me got it, but I said, “Mr. Nichols, with all due respect. If I were your daughter, I would have used this relationship a long time ago.” (Laughs) He had the best belly laugh, and he started laughing so hard. It was one of my most memorable onset experiences.
You mentioning P2 is a perfect segue into The Inheritance. You’ve done a lot of horror in your career. What draws you to it?
I love being scared. I am a crazy person who loves to watch petrifying movies by myself. I love being jumpy, and then hearing a creek in the house. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I need to get checked out, but I love that.
Even when you’re shooting a movie, obviously it isn’t gonna be scary because there are people around, lighting, the whole thing. But even though I’m in the movie, when I get to watch it, some of them still give me the creeps. Something is intoxicating about it, so for me to be able to be a part of it, that other people will get to see I enjoy it thoroughly.
What was it that drew you specifically to The Inheritance?
Honestly, I was reading the script, and if you can’t tell, I don’t have a lot of Madeline in me, and I love playing characters that aren’t like me. I mean, I haven’t been the Madeline who runs the family company, who’s kind of a stick in the mud, cold, a total bitch and deep down pretty unhappy. That’s so unlike me, it was just very enticing. I thought “I’m gonna give this a go. I think it’s gonna be really fun.” And it was!
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