Lauded as one of the greatest comedies of the 21st century, Mean Girls transcended the trappings of the “chick flick” and appealed to anyone with a sense of humor who didn’t have a great time in high school.
Written by Tina Fey in her screenwriting debut and starring Lindsay Lohan in her first ever non-Disney movie role, Mean Girls tells the story of Cady Heron. After spending her childhood in Africa with her parents, Cady has to adapt to life in an American high school and finds that it’s not too dissimilar to the brutality of the animal kingdom.
Lindsay Lohan was originally cast as Regina George
Although she ended up playing Cady Heron, Lindsay Lohan was initially cast to play Regina George. The casting team thought that Lohan was better-suited to Cady, and since Lohan had already expressed concern that playing a “mean girl” would damage her public image, they came to a mutual decision to switch the casting.
Rachel McAdams was chosen for Regina because she came off as nice, and the producers felt that a nice actor would be the best choice for a mean character. Interestingly, despite the fact that they play high school students in the same grade, Lohan is eight years younger than McAdams.
Cady was named after Tina Fey’s college roommate
While attending the University of Virginia together in the early ‘90s, Tina Fey got a cheap, furniture-less apartment in Charlottesville with her friend Cady Garey. Despite the terrible living conditions (all they had were mattresses on the floor and a bean bag in the living room), they bonded enough during this time for Fey to name Mean Girls’ protagonist, Cady Heron, after Garey.
Fey takes a lot of character names from real life; Glen Coco was even named after a real guy. Cady’s name has also been linked to the maiden name of suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the earliest pioneers of women’s rights.
Mr. Duvall has carpal tunnel problems because Tim Meadows broke his hand before shooting
There’s a running joke throughout Mean Girls in which Mr. Duvall – the school’s principal, played by SNL’s Tim Meadows – has a bandage on his hand. This is due to the character’s carpal tunnel problems. This gag wasn’t in the original script. It was only added to explain why Meadows was wearing a cast on his hand.
He broke his hand right before shooting, so he had to wear a cast during production. The producers didn’t want to recast the role, because Meadows was a long-time friend of Tina Fey’s from their SNL days and his comic sensibility was perfect for the character, so they wrote his cast into the script as a solution.
The Plastics’ skirts at the Christmas talent show are actually made of plastic
Despite the fact that Regina, Gretchen, Karen, and occasionally Cady are referred to as “the Plastics,” they never actually use this term themselves throughout the film. Still, that’s how the group is known around school – and how they’ve come to be known in the moviegoing community.
The skirts that the girls wear during their performance at the Christmas talent show were actually made out of plastic. Although this is an unconventional material to make clothing out of, the costume designer working on Mean Girls decided to make the Plastics’ skirt out of it in order to represent what they’re all about.
Tina Fey’s script was based on a self-help book for parents
In the credits for Mean Girls, you’ll see that it’s technically adapted from a book, but the story and characters are original creations, because that book is a non-fiction self-help book for parents. It was written by Rosalind Wiseman and it’s called Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence.
When Tina Fey agreed to adapt the book, she didn’t realize it was a self-help book with no narrative, and worried she’d signed up for an impossible task. In the book, the most popular girl at a given school is called the “Queen Bee.” Uncoincidentally, Regina means “queen” in Latin.
James Franco was considered for the role of Aaron Samuels
When the casting team behind Mean Girls was searching for the ideal actor to portray Aaron Samuels, James Franco came pretty close to clinching the part. At the time, Franco was most famous for his appearances as Harry Osborn, Peter Parker’s best friend, in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies. He’d also starred alongside Seth Rogen and Linda Cardellini in Freaks and Geeks, another relatable high school story.
The role of Aaron ended up going to Jonathan Bennett, and Tina Fey has admitted that what drew her to Bennett was his physical resemblance to Jimmy Fallon, who she’d worked with on Saturday Night Live.
The producers had to cut a lot of crude material to earn a PG-13 rating
In order to obtain a PG-13 rating from the MPAA, who wanted to rate the film R, the producers of Mean Girls had to tone down a lot of crude material. When Cady is asked if her “muffin was buttered,” she was originally asked, “Is your cherry popped?” When a girl is said to have “made out with a hot dog,” the line was originally going to be “masturbated with a hot dog.”
The original version of the scene in which Cady walks in on Gretchen kissing Jason actually had Gretchen performing oral sex on Jason. Director Mark Waters managed to slip some risqué lines past the MPAA when he argued that they’d let similar dialogue slide in Anchorman, which received a PG-13 rating.
Lizzy Caplan was initially deemed too pretty to play Janis Ian
As the producers had been looking for a “Kelly Osbourne-like actress” to play Janis Ian, Lizzy Caplan was initially deemed too pretty for the role. However, she impressed the producers so much with the emotion in her audition that she was given the part anyway.
Janis was named as an homage to a real-life musician named Janis Ian, who appeared as the first ever musical guest (along with Billy Preston) on Saturday Night Live. “At Seventeen,” a song by Ian, can be heard in Mean Girls, in the scene in which the Plastics are all fighting in Regina George’s house.
Tina Fey was a “mean girl” in her own high school days
Tina Fey wrote the script for Mean Girls, adapting the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes. It was her first produced screenplay, having written for Saturday Night Live for years beforehand. She also played the math teacher Ms. Norbury in the movie, in order to combat the stereotype that women can’t do math. Ms. Norbury was named after a German teacher who taught at Fey’s alma mater, Upper Darby High School.
Fey has confessed that she was a “mean girl” in her own high school days. She explained, “I was [a mean girl]. I admit it openly. That was a disease that had to be conquered.”
Amanda Seyfried was initially up for the role of Cady Heron
Mean Girls marked Amanda Seyfried’s acting debut. She was iconic in the ditzy role of Karen Smith. But as it turns out, she was originally up for the role of Cady Heron instead. Producer Lorne Michaels stepped in when he felt that Seyfried was better-suited to playing Karen than Cady.
Before Seyfried switched roles and took on playing Karen, Scarlett Johansson and Ashley Tisdale auditioned for the part. This was before Lost in Translation and High School Musical, respectively, turned them into big stars. On the other hand, Lacey Chabert was the producers’ first and only choice for Gretchen Wieners.