Lindsay Lohan played the lead role in Mean Girls, but she originally auditioned to play the film's villain Regina George. Released in 2004, Mean Girls is highly regarded as one of the best teen comedies to arrive in the 2000s. The movie is based on Rosalind Wiseman's book and was adapted for the big screen by Tina Fey, who wrote the screenplay. Mean Girls was a huge success upon its arrival, earning $130 million worldwide on a small budget, and its popularity hasn't dipped with its memorable quotes or the celebration of Mean Girls Day every year on October 3rd.
Mean Girls stars Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron, an innocent teenage girl who grew up in Africa with her parents and suddenly moves to Illinois. This introduces Cady to the foreign world of high school with all of its cliques. She manages to befriend the most popular girls in school Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Karen Smith (Mamma Mia's Amanda Seyfried), and Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert). Together they are known as The Plastics and it isn't long before Cady begins following their lavish lifestyles of beauty and cruelty to others. However, since Cady likes Regina's on-again/off-again boyfriend Aaron Samuels, the two don't remain friends for very long. Cady attempting to ruin Regina's life by sabotaging her beauty, stealing her friends, and getting Aaron to break up with her.
As Cady often toes the line between staying a character that audiences can root for and becoming a full-on high school villain, Lohan does a great job playing both sides of the role. She's almost the perfect choice to play her, but Lohan originally auditioned for Regina George. Lohan was looking to go against type after gaining notoriety chiefly in Disney movies and also more specifically, the likes of Freaky Friday and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and wanted to play a popular girl. But, the popularity of Freaky Friday led Paramount to ask if Lohan could play Cady instead since audiences knew her as a likable character.
The reasoning behind Lohan not getting the role of Regina George is exactly why it would've been fascinating to see her in the role. Its possible audiences associating Lohan with a "hero" would bring more sympathy towards Regina. Or, it would simply be a showcase for Lohan to go in the opposite direction. There's little doubt that Lohan could've been great as Regina too, as Cady's time as a Plastic shows Lohan has the range to play the manipulative bully.
If Lohan ultimately did play Regina instead of Cady, Mean Girls' cast ironically might not have changed too much. Before Lohan was cast as Cady, Rachel McAdams auditioned to play the lead character. This was right before she landed the role of Allie in The Notebook, but director Mark Waters thought she would be too old to play his lead character. Even though McAdams could've made for a good Cady, her performance as Regina is one of the film's best parts and it's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role now. As fun as it might have been to see Lohan as Regina and McAdams as Cady, Mean Girls probably turned out for the best by having Lohan play Cady and McAdams play Regina.