Actress Rachel McAdams opened up about her choice to take a two-year break from acting and the guilt surrounding that choice, telling Bustle, "I needed to keep my sanity."

McAdams is also the star of the new film "God, Will You Stay There?" which opens April 28. (yes, it is an adaptation of Judy Blume's seminal 1970 book.) Of taking a vacation, she said, "I think I always had the sense that I was going to be okay.

She said that time away from the limelight "was really empowering. I felt like I was in control. And I think I was able to come in through a different doorway."

McAdams' first film role was in 2002, and since then she has starred in "Mean Girls," "The Notebook," and "Wedding Crashers" all in 2004-2005, including the 2015 Oscar-winning "Spotlight." She typically appears in at least one film a year. During the past three years, he has been seen on screen less and less, and he says of his career hiatus in the 2000s, "I knew I was in a fortunate place, and I felt guilty for not taking advantage of the opportunities I had been given. But I also knew that it didn't fit with my personality or what I needed to do to stay sane."

She added that she did not feel confident enough at the time that her breakthrough in the 2000s was the right decision, and not long after her first breakthrough in "Mean Girls," she turned down roles in films such as "The Devil Wears Prada," "Casino Royale," and "Iron Man" Bustle points out that "she had to turn down all of them.

"There were definitely moments of anxiety that I was throwing it all away and wondering why I was doing it," McAdams said. 'It took me years to intuitively understand what I was doing.'