Mean Girls may have come out in 2004, but it remains as relevant as ever in pop culture today.
We wear pink on Wednesdays, say “that’s so fetch” (much to the dismay of Regina ), and celebrate October 3 regardless of how many years have gone by.
We also take the time to learn as much as we can about the classic, starting with these 10+ Mean Girls behind the scenes secrets fans didn’t know.
1. The movie is inspired by a self-help book:
The self-help book by Rosalind Wiseman is fittingly called Queen Bees & Wannabes . It teaches parents about teenage cliques.
When speaking to The Wire , she said that the movie is pretty accurate in portraying how girls behave.
She even said that her workshops are pretty similar to the one Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey) did in the film.
Sort of.
“I do not do trust falls, I have never done trust falls, I will never do trust falls. But yes there is a passing similarity.”
2. Rachel McAdams almost didn’t play Regina George:
The Queen Bee title almost went to other Mean Girls cast members, including Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried.
“I wanted to play Regina. I had just played — in Confessions and Freaky — not the cool girl in school,” Lohan told Entertainment Weekly .
“I was still 17 years old and I wanted to be the cool girl on set.”
In the end, the director Mark Waters wouldn’t budge on changing Lohan’s character.
“So I had a war with him and he goes, ‘No, Cady is the heroine, and that’s who you are.'”
3. As for Amanda Seyfried, she got closer to playing Regina than Lindsay did.
Waters told Vulture , “The person who was neck and neck for the role of Regina – and we agonized over which one we were going to cast – was Amanda Seyfried.”
“She tested for Regina and was kind of brilliant and very different than Rachel’s approach.”
“She played it in a much more ethereal but still kind of scary way. She was more frightening, but oddly, less intimidating.”
4. Amy Poehler pinned a cocktail wiener to her bra for the iconic chihuahua scene:
Seyfried explained the logistics behind this to Entertainment Weekly :
“I thought this dog was going to tear her apart. It was very effective. She was such a pro through it. She’s trying to do her lines and being so professional, and this dog is chomping on her fake boob. I’ll never forget that.”
5. *Mean Girls* helped actor Daniel Franzese come out:
The actor thanked his character, Damian, in a touching letter on Indie Wire :
“Now in 2014 – ten years later – looking back, it took YOU to teach me how to be proud of myself again … I have always been different and that’s rad.”
6. Jonathan Bennett had never played soccer before:
This was a big issue since his character, Aaron Samuels, was an athlete who was on the school’s soccer team.
This made those soccer scenes super challenging, the actor told Teen Vogue .
“I don’t know how to play soccer, nor had I ever kicked a soccer ball in my life.”
“So we went to rehearsal and the director, Mark Waters, just shook his head and said, ‘crap.’ And they had to get a soccer coach to teach me how to kick the ball because I was so bad at it. It was the first and only time I’ve played soccer.”
7. Glenn Coco is a real person:
Fey told Entertainment Weekly : “My older brother’s good friend is Glenn Coco. He’s a film editor in Los Angeles, and I imagine it’s a pain in the butt for him.”
You go, Glenn Coco!
8. Amy Poehler mentored Kevin G. for his rap scene:
Who could forget his iconic rap at the Christmas talent show?
Personally, I didn’t know Amy Poehler had a hand in any of this! But it’s not surprising, considering she is absolutely hilarious.
Waters told *Vulture*, “[Fey will] actually give credit to Amy for this, because Amy is more of a rap person.”
“Amy definitely coached him on how to do the rap, and she actually gave him some of the moves and choreography for it.”
9. Paramount Pictures had mixed feelings about an *SNL*-filled cast:
These SNL faces included Tina Fey, who wrote the movie’s screenplay; Amy Poehler, who played Regina’s mom; and Tim Meadows, who played Principal Duvall.
There was also Lorne Michaels, SNL creator and executive producer, who was a producer on the film.
Waters explained Paramount Picture’s nervousness about this to *Vulture*:
“They’d been burned on some ‘Saturday Night Live’ movies that had come from Lorne,” he said .
“So they didn’t want many ‘Saturday Night Live’ actors in ‘Mean Girls’, because then it might feel like an SNL movie and people might shy away from it.”
10. Like her character Karen, Amanda Seyfried can actually stick her fist in her mouth:
The actress even demonstrated this unique talent during an interview with Radio Times .
It’s still unknown whether she can also tell the weather by, um, squeezing her breasts.
11. Tina Fey’s mom inspired the “ugliest effing skirt” scene:
“My mom has this habit that if she sees a lady in a really ugly hat or a glittery sweatshirt, she’ll go, ‘I love your shirt’ and I’ll say, ‘Mom, that’s really mean,” Tina once explained .
She continued:
“And she’ll say, ‘Clearly she wanted someone to notice that shirt. She picked it out. It has a huge teddy bear on it.’”
Sounds like Fey’s mom was the original Queen Bee! Watch out, Regina.
12. Cady’s word vomit was made of chicken soup and cereal:
gags
In an interview with Teen Vogue , Bennett shared that he once had this gross concoction thrown up on him for nothing.
“She had to put it in her mouth and then pretend to throw it up on me,” he said about Lindsay.
“And it was so gross, because it was going on my pants.”
“And then afterwards, when they cut the movie together, they never showed it. So I realized I did that all for nothing!”
Poor Jonathan!
13. Janis Ian was a real person:
Janis Ian, who is the rebellious friend in Cady’s group, is actually named after two musical guests who appeared on Saturday Night Live .
In fact, Ian, who won a Grammy, wrote “At Seventeen,” which deals with similar themes from the movie.
14. Cady is named after Tina Fey’s college roommate:
Cady is named after Tina Fey’s former roommate, Cady Garey.
Garey said of their time living together , “We really didn’t have any furniture. Just mattresses on the floor and a bean bag in the living room.”
15. Mary Jane Fort, who was the costume designer for the movie, had to read a lot of teen magazines and flip through yearbooks:
This was done to make sure that the style followed the style that teenagers were currently wearing.
It definitely did wonders for the movie.
“We read millions of teen magazines and looked through millions of high school yearbooks from all over the country.”
“But real schools are not quite as glossy, and we wanted a little more gloss just given the subject matter of the group. It’s called the Plastics,” Fort said to Nylon.
16. Tina Fey was not down for a sequel movie:
“At the time we did want to start the conversation about the sequel, and for whatever reason I was like, ‘No!!! We shouldn’t do that!’ Now I look back and I’m like, ‘Why?’ But now, no — it’s too late now.” she said.
“We’re going to see if there’s any way to get everyone together, but not a movie, sadly. We’re all past high school age.”
While there is a musical that follows the movie, personally, I think leaving it as a standalone film is the right call.
17. Tim Meadows’ hand was actually broken:
He, unfortunately, broke his hand before shooting the film!
So, because of that, they added the detail that his character, Mr. Duvall, had carpal tunnel.
18. Rachel McAdams had to mimic Alec Baldwin’s character Glengarry Glen Ross for Regina George:
He was meant to be used as a rough draft for what her character was meant to be.
She definitely got the aggression down, that’s for sure!
