20 years on, these 15 Mean Girls production secrets and facts are still as fetch as the film

Rachel McAdams wanted to play Cady, but ‘intimidated’ Lindsay Lohan in script readings so they made her Regina

3 weeks ago

It’s officially been two whole decades since Mean Girls first came out, yet still, the production secrets and behind the scenes facts about the film continue to blow my mind.

Let’s not lie to ourselves, Mean Girls is the best film ever created, and shaped an entire generation, before continuing to do so for every generation that has come since. Every single one of us can quote it word for word, and can reminisce on girly sleepovers where we’d watch it every time, without fail.

Here’s a rundown of all the very best Mean Girls production secrets and behind the scenes facts. The limit of how obsessed I am with these does not exist x

The movie was originally going to be called ‘Homeschooled’

The less that’s said about the original name, the better.

Tina Fey named many characters after real life friends

Creator and actress Tina Fey named many characters in the film after her real life friends. In a 2014 interview about the movie, she told Entertainment Weekly: “I tried to use real names in writing because it’s just easier.”

Main character Cady Heron was named after Fey’s college roommate Cady Garey, Damian was named after her high school friend Damian Holbrook, and Glenn Coco is named after a friend of her older brother; the real Glenn Coco works as a film editor in Los Angeles.

Blake Lively was originally going to play Karen

Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively got pretty far in the process for becoming Karen, but creators of the film then contacted Amanda Seyfried and told her she was a better fit for the role.

“She [Blake] came down to the final tests but, at some point, some of the filmmakers said to keep looking,” casting director Marci Liroff previously told Cosmopolitan. “Amanda Seyfried had read for Regina, and we really liked her, then [a producer] suggested, ‘Why don’t we make her Karen?’”

Loads of big names auditioned to be Gretchen

Loads of famous faces attended screen tests to be Gretchen Weiners. These included Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

James Franco was cast as Aaron Samuels and another actor got fired from the role?!

Of course we now know Aaron Samuels as being played by Jonathan Bennett, and probably can’t picture anyone else in the role. But originally, James Franco had been in talks. Before this, another big actor – of whom his ID has been kept pretty under wraps – was cast in the role, but he got fired at a script table read! Apparently he refused to take his hat off and it pissed people off? Wild.

Penn Badgley, Jared Padalecki and Max Minghella all also auditioned to play heartthrob Aaron Samuels.

The Louis Vuitton purses in the film are all fake

Omg I love your purse! Where did you get it? A knock off shop, it seems.

Lindsay Lohan wanted to play Regina

Casting sounds like a nightmare, because originally Lindsay Lohan wanted to be Regina. “I wanted to play Regina. I had just played—in Confessions and Freaky—not the cool girl in school,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2014. “I was still 17 years old and I wanted to be the cool girl on set.”

Apparently her team told her this wouldn’t be a good look for her, as she’d always played the “good girl” in movies, so she became Cady instead.

So did Amanda Seyfried!

It seems being Regina was a hot topic, as Amanda Seyfried was also gunning for the role. She was apparently a front runner after an impressive test for the part, but the producers didn’t think her audition was “intimidating” enough.

And apparently Rachel McAdams wanted to be Cady but made Lindsay Lohan nervous so they cast her as Regina!

Rachel McAdams was originally interested in playing Cady, but creators of the film have revealed she made Lindsay Lohan feel nervous in script readings, so they thought she’d make a better Regina. They said Lindsay was a “a little intimidated” by Rachel, which created a good dynamic.

Umm, Rachel McAdams’ wig for Regina cost $10k?

Now the “how do I begin to explain Regina George? Regina George is flawless. I hear her hair’s insured for $10,000” line makes SO much sense.

Janis Ian’s look was based on Kelly Osbourne

Janis Ian’s black hair and punk-rebel look was based on Kelly Osbourne, which now it’s been said, was really quite obvious. However, apparently casting producers initially had doubts about Lizzy Caplan in the role, because she “wasn’t edgy enough”.

‘I want my pink shirt back’ was an improvised line!

The moment when Janis and Damian drive past Cady’s house party and realise they weren’t invited and she’s now a cold, shiny Plastic created the iconic “I want my pink shirt back” line from Damian – requesting the shirt he gave Cady to look like a Plastic got returned to him after her betrayal.

This was actually completely improvised at the time, and Tina Fey of course decided it was too good to cut, and left it in.

Amy Poehler wrote the iconic Kevin G rap

It really is no wonder that Ms George was seen loving every moment in the crowd of the winter talent show, because Amy Poehler was tasked by Tina Fey to write the rap for Kevin G. She also then coached him on how to perform it, and choreographed the whole thing. God, he kept her young.

Amy Poehler attached a cocktail sausage to her bra to get the dog biting her scene to work

Art!

There was a whole deleted scene for Damian

The initial Mean Girls script featured a scene for Damian that was cut before it was even filmed. “The original ending shows what happened to Damian after [junior year], and he was going to audition for American Idol. Simon Cowell was going to call him chubby and then he was going to run up on the stage and punch him,” Daniel Franzese told Cosmopolitan.

Grool!