“Are you there God?” Star Rachel McAdams’ first Celeb Crush was Conan the Barbarian

In the new movie “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” Rachel McAdams has to look back on her adolescence, but Abby Ryder Fortson is still in the middle of hers. The worst thing about being a teenager for the 15-year-old actor? “All the clumsiness, of course,” she tells POPSUGAR. “There are days when I thought, ‘Wow, I just did something really stupid. And I thought, ‘Hmm, okay, we need to work on that.’

McAdams says if there’s one thing she misses about being a teenager, it’s “that feeling of floating through the day like a butterfly.” She now realizes she had a “lack of responsibility” as a teenager, adding, “I thought I had a lot to do, but I really didn’t.” Still, McAdams admits, “To be honest, I don’t really miss being a teenager much. I’m sorry, Abby.” Fortson agrees: “It’s a tough time.”

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” – based on Judy Blume’s seminal 1970 young adult classic – Fortson stars as the titular Margaret, a high school student on the verge of puberty whose life is thrown into chaos when her parents moving their families to the suburbs. The film follows Margaret’s journey through a school year as she deals with friends, puberty, religion and her first crush. McAdams stars as Margaret’s mother Barbara, whose role was expanded for the film.

Fortson hadn’t read the book until she was auditioned for the movie, but she felt the impact of the story right away. “I turned to my parents and I said, ‘Oh my God, how exactly did someone write down this experience? How did someone write down exactly what this feels like?'” she recalled. “It’s such an incredible achievement that Judy was able to create a story that is so relatable to so many people, and I absolutely loved it, and it made me fall in love with the project.”

McAdams also hadn’t read the book until the movie came out and she said it was interesting to read it now as a mother, looking for the mother’s point of view. But she didn’t just identify with the parental role in the story. “What was so interesting was that I was still related to Margaret,” McAdams explains. “I got all kinds of great juicy tidbits and stuff about my character, but it was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why this is so timeless. This takes me right back, and I have all the feelings about that time of my life.’ And it really stuck with me.”

Margaret has to deal with the joy and pain of her first crush in the book and movie, and Fortson and McAdams have both been there too. “It’s always awkward,” says Fortson. McAdams adds that she “probably” had her first crush in kindergarten. “He never wanted to play house, he thought it was boring,” she says. “I remember…stealing a kiss on his neck once, and he was so upset.”

As for celebrities who caught her eye in her youth? “I remember seeing Conan the Barbarian and having this weird feeling in my stomach,” McAdams says of the first celeb crush she remembers. She inquires with Fortson if the teen knows that Conan was Arnold Schwarzenegger, and she does. Check out more of their interview with POPSUGAR above.

“Is that you God? It’s me, Margaret?” is in theaters now.