Actress Rachel McAdams says she loves getting involved in developing her characters and thinks simply being cute is "dull".

"I love those preliminary conversations about who a character is. You try on wigs, shoes and clothes. It's preferable when it's not about looking pretty. It can get a little dull to just be cute," McAdams told LOOK magazine, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"We talk about things, like maybe my character can't afford these Christian Louboutins. The stylist will say, 'No one will notice'. And I'm like, 'Everyone knows that red-bottomed shoe," she added.

The actress plays Boston Globe reporter named Sacha Pfeiffer, who helped expose a child abuse scandal in the Catholic church in 2001, and was fascinated to have a real person to base her character on in the film "Spotlight".

"I spent a lot of time with her. I've never played a living person before, so I tried to study her mannerisms, the way she walked and many small things - like how she spoke to her colleagues, how she dressed and the way she sat at her desk," she said.