Mean Girls Secrets in New Book About the Making of 2004 Film: From $10K Wigs to Twerking at Cast Parties

The border of fun facts about Mean girls there is not.

Fans of the 2004 hit comedy will get more behind-the-scenes details in the new book, plus all-new interviews with the cast and crew. So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We’re Still So Obsessed With It) Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, who is also behind the books about Sex and the city and Seinfeld.

Unauthorized Mean girls the creation of the book is billed as “part love letter, part cultural commentary,” revealing a little-known secret about the Tina Fey-penned project — like the original title Schooled at home.

Read on for some of the funniest discoveries featured in the So Fetchwhich is now available wherever books are sold.

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Cover of So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We’re Still So Obsessed With It) (2024) Jennifer Keishin Armstrong.

Courtesy of Dey Street Books / HarperCollins Publishers

Blake Lively, Kristen Stewart, Megan Fox and others were considered Mean girls roles

North Shore High’s plastic and key players almost looked completely different. Of course, the legendary roles ended up going to Lindsay Lohan as Cady, Rachel McAdams as Regina, Amanda Seyfried as Karen, Lacey Chabert as Gretchen, Lizzy Caplan as Janis and Daniel Franzese as Damian.

But according to the book, which includes interviews with casting director Marci Liroff, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens and Mary Elizabeth Winstead all auditioned for Gretchen.

When Lohan, 37, said early on that she would prefer to take on the role of Regina, the filmmakers considered alternative actresses for Cady, including Kristen Stewart, Mae Whitman and Michelle Trachtenberg, according to the book.

Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Megan Fox.

Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty; Nina Westervelt/Variety via Getty; Presley Ann/Getty

You see Mean girls Actors side by side with other actors who played the characters

Actresses such as Haylie Duff, Kate Mara, Blake Lively and Leighton Meester have tried their hand at the now iconic role of Karen, as well as Lohan Confessions of a teenage drama queen actress Megan Fox.

Meanwhile, America Ferrera and Kat Dennings circled for Janis, an outcast seeking revenge on teenage queen Regina.

Penn Badgley, Jared Padalecki and Max Minghella auditioned to play heartthrob Aaron Samuels. That role went to Jonathan Bennett – after another unnamed actor was dropped from the role immediately after the cast list was read.

Rachel McAdams entered Mean girls (2004). Paramount/Courtesy of Everett Lindsay Lohan asked to play Regina George in Mean Girls: ‘I wanted to play a nice, normal girl’

Rachel McAdams’ Regina wig cost $10,000

There is some truth in the famous Mean girls line of dialogue that Regina George’s hair is rumored to be “insured for $10,000.” According to So Fetchwhich features an interview with hairstylist Carol Hartwick, the long, blonde wig worn by McAdams’ Queen Bee costs about that much.

The hair clip, according to the book, was produced by a wigmaker in Stratford, Ontario. (Mean girls it was filmed mostly in Canada).

Also, Chabert, 41, “wore a three-quarter wig to keep her hair big, pumping up her naturally fine locks,” according to the book. Her gossipy Gretchen famously had her hair “so big” because she’s “full of secrets.”

“The hair was important [on the movie]” Hartwick says in the book. “I’ve never been so busy.”

Lindsay Lohan, Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese Mean girls (2004).

CBS via Getty Images

Reneé Rapp Explains Her ‘Love’ For Regina George: ‘A Mean Girl Is Always Hot To Me’ (Exclusive)

Actor Glen Coco got the part after stumbling upon the set

So Fetch offers insight into just how many background actors landed their roles, especially those memorable one-liners that cemented them forever in pop culture history. It also delves into their experiences while making the film — and the viral internet attention they’ve received over the years.

David Reale had the uncredited role of Glen Coco, the subject of Damian’s famous line from Santa Claus: “Four for you, Glen Coco! You go, Glen Coco.” Reale accidentally stepped into the legendary brief role.

“Nobody on Mean girls the production team knew his name. He did not sign a contract to participate in the film. It just appeared,” Armstrong writes.

The actor, who was 19 at the time, had already auditioned for the film and was not selected. Reale went on set to visit friends, when director Mark Waters randomly saw him and said, “I’m going to bring you into the next scene. You’re going to have a name and everything. It’s going to be great.”

Amy Poehler d Mean girls Premiere in New York in 2004.

Theo Wargo/WireImage

10 biggest differences between the new Mean girls The film and the original

The Mean girls the closing party included twerking and karaoke

To celebrate the end of filming, the cast and crew relaxed at a big party. Some of the actors recalled memories from the event in So Get it.

Jill Morrison, who had a small role in Crying Girl, says in the book that she filmed with Fey, 53, and actress Amy Poehler. “Morrison danced with them, freaking out when she saw Poehler doing a little twerking move like she did during Saturday night live sketch once,” reads a line in the book.

When they started karaoke together, Nicole Crimi (the young actress who played Regina’s younger sister) sang a song with the Plastic actresses, while Franzese and Poehler sang “Love Shack” by the B-52s.

The cast of the new 2024 Mean girls the film musical similarly delighted at their finale. Auli’i Cravalho, the new Janis, told PEOPLE that everyone “had a great time, rocking out on the dance floor a little bit” at the celebration, which was “a lot of fun.”

Actor Damian Jaquel Spivey added: “It was so much fun to have all of us in the room having drinks, listening to some Beyoncé, shaking some ass.”

Tina Fey and Lindsay Lohan in New York City Mean girls premiered in 2004.

Theo Wargo/WireImage

Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler have Mean girls Reunion at the cinema

Mean girlnarrowly avoided an R rating

When rating the original film, the Motion Picture Association had some doubts about their ability to give it a teen-friendly rating.

Fey and the film’s directors had to tweak some jokes to appease the ratings board in order to get a PG-13 rating that would help target a younger audience. For example, instead of a rumor that a character masturbated with a frozen hot dog, they had to go with “made out” with a hot dog.

In another case, the insult “stinks” was replaced with “fat whore”. And the moment when the boy asks Cady if her “muffin” is “buttered” originally read, “We’re taking a lunchtime poll: Are your cherries baked?”

So Fetch by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong.

A. Jesse to Jiryu Davis

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However, the team gave up on one request. Fey “wrote an impassioned letter to the board explaining why she thought the cut was sexist,” regarding the MPAA wanting to remove the “wide-spread vagina” moment, the book says.

“They were going to fight this. That line was too good to lose, especially with the frozen hot dog already out,” Armstrong says in the book. “… It worked. The board changed its decision on that line, and that line only.”

Mean girls it was ultimately rated PG-13 for “sexual content, language and some teenage fun.” (The new film-musical version is PG-13 for “sexual material, coarse language and teenage drinking.”)

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Source: HIS Education