The Darden Clarkelimit of emotions Rachel McAdams is feeling these days does not exist. 

After more than two decades of acting, the Mean Girls alum marked a sweet milestone as she made her Broadway debut April 21. 

"I'm walking on air," Rachel told E! News at the opening night of Mary Jane, in which she plays the titular single mom raising a chronically ill son. "I can't believe I survived this far."

And the 45-year-old has her own family to thank for that. As she put it, "They've been with me since I started theater when I was 12 years old."

"They asked—acquiesced—like, "Oh god, I hope she doesn't want to be an actress for real," she jokingly recalled of her parents' reaction in the early days of her career. "And then when I just kept going, they were like, 'OK, all right, it's up to you.'" (To catch Rachel's full interview, tune into E! News tonight, April 22, at 11 p.m.)

Reflecting on her family's support throughout the years, Rachel described it as an "amazing" full-circle moment to see them sitting in the audience for her first show on the Great White Way. 

"They came backstage," she added, "and we're all having a good cry."

As for her own parenthood journey? Rachel—who welcomed a son in 2018 and a daughter in 2020 with longtime partner Jamie Linden—previously told E! that it's "great to play a mom as a mom."

"I've played moms before in the past for probably the last decade," she said in 2023, "but it's a different experience when you have done it in your real life, too."

Though Rachel admitted that some days "I feel like I'm 12 years old and I don't know what's happening," being a parent is all about taking it one step at a time.

"You have these  quiet moments of feeling like, 'OK, it's all going to be alright,'" she shared. "So, it's just a constant journey, isn't it?"

—Reporting by Emily Curl

Watch E! News weeknights Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m., only on E!.