Lindsay Lohan has admitted that she wanted to play Regina George in the 2004 film Mean Girls as the villain. Cady Heron, played by Lohan, is a new high school student who has recently come from Africa to the United States and is adopted into the popular (mean) girls clique, prompting her to doubt all she has ever known. Rachel McAdams as Regina George, the head of “The Plastics,” with Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Wieners and Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith as her companions.
Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters (Freaky Friday) and written by (and co-starring) Tina Fey, was a smash hit for everyone involved and has since become a renowned high-school comedy classic. The film has spawned a slew of spinoffs, ranging from comic books to video games to stage productions. In 2011, a made-for-TV sequel named Simply Mean Girls 2 was released, however, it featured an entirely new cast with no ties to the characters from the first film.
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Lohan reiterates in a new Vogue video that she had always wanted to portray Regina George rather than Cady Heron. “The narrative behind me playing Cady in Mean Girls is actually pretty unknown by a lot of people,” Lohan says in the video, adding, “The story behind me playing Cady in Mean Girls is actually really unknown by a lot of people.” The actress, who had just finished filming Freaky Friday with Waters, expressed her desire to play a “regular girl” rather than the “damaged teenager” she’d become accustomed to portraying. Here’s how she explains it all:
I wanted to play Regina because I’d recently finished filming ‘Freaky Friday’ and wanted to portray a more typical character. “I wanted to play something other than the wounded adolescent,” Lohan explained. “And Mark Waters, the director, insisted on casting me as Cady, as did Tina [Fey].” ‘No, no, no, you’re the charming one, you have to play Cady,’ they say. I was very excited to get to the ‘okay, let’s get to the gorgeous part of Cady’ phase of the transition. It’s just such a charming film.
When they were having fittings for Mean Girls, Lohan claimed she was delighted to “wear the skirts and just dress more girlie,” but she was relieved when she portrayed Cady at the beginning of the film, as she dressed considerably more casually than her “Plastic” counterparts at the time. “I got to rest and calm, and everyone was envious because I was wearing sneakers, which they couldn’t do every day,” Lohan claimed. The actress has indicated an interest in returning for a sequel to Mean Girls, but the concept appears to lie with Fey, who has yet to write a script for one because she’s been preoccupied with Mean Girls: The Musical.
Lohan’s career never seemed to reach its pinnacle after her role in Mean Girls, which is still a widely cited and adored film among its legions of admirers. However, it’s intriguing to consider what she would have brought to the part of Regina George, as it’s likely that it might have led to additional opportunities for her in the future. Lohan was placed in identical leading lady roles over and over again, but she didn’t start testing herself until things had calmed down and the options were no longer as plentiful. Perhaps she’ll get an opportunity to reprise the part in the future, but until then, fans will have to content themselves with rewatching the original Mean Girls, which appears to be in high demand. Later this year, Lohan will star in the Netflix original film Falling For Christmas.
