Buzz
Since its release in 2004, this movie has achieved cult status, inspiring sequels, a Broadway musical, and even a film adaptation of the musical. Mean Girls is so beloved that it has its own dedicated day of celebration (October 3, in case you were curious). Dive into some fascinating trivia about this unforgettable film.
The inspiration for Mean Girls came from a parenting guide.
Tina Fey crafted her debut screenplay for Mean Girls after being inspired by Rosalind Wiseman’s bestselling book, Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends & Other Realities of Adolescence. As the title implies, Wiseman’s book provides parents with tools to help their daughters navigate the complexities of teenage life. The book is filled with stories from Wiseman’s experiences conducting workshops in schools across the country through Empower, a non-profit anti-violence initiative she co-founded.
“You might think it’s unnecessary to make a big deal out of not being invited to a birthday party or allowing your daughter to ditch one friend for another,” Wiseman explains. “However, these situations are far from trivial; they set the stage for girls to mask their true feelings, pretend to be someone they’re not, prioritize others over themselves, and ultimately sacrifice their self-esteem and authenticity.”
The character played by Lindsay Lohan was named after Tina Fey’s college roommate...
Lindsay Lohan at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Mean Girls.' | Kevin Winter/GettyImagesDuring her time studying drama at the University of Virginia in the early ’90s, Tina Fey shared a modest apartment in Charlottesville with her college friend Cady Garey. As Garey recalled in a 2013 interview with UVA's alumni magazine, their living situation was far from luxurious: “We barely had any furniture—just mattresses on the floor and a bean bag in the living room.”
Despite the humble living conditions, it seems to have been a memorable bonding experience; as the magazine noted, Cady Garey inspired the name of Mean Girls’s protagonist, Cady Heron.
… And potentially Elizabeth Cady Stanton as well.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. | Library of Congress/GettyImagesAccording to IMDb’s Mean Girls trivia page, the name “Cady” may also be a nod to suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s maiden name, subtly honoring the legacy of female empowerment.
Tina Fey struggled with delivering Ms. Norbury’s math-related dialogue.
Tina Fey and Lindsay Lohan. | Kevin Winter/GettyImagesFey decided to portray a math teacher to challenge the stereotype that girls aren’t good at math, as she explained to
Regina George’s character has subtle influences from Courtney Love and Alec Baldwin.
“Regina George was essentially a deeply angry teenager with no limits or direction,” Rachel McAdams explained in The New York Times’s 2014 oral history of the film. To tap into Regina’s rage, director Mark Waters advised McAdams to “blast Courtney Love’s music at full volume” (likely referring to Love’s band Hole) and to study Alec Baldwin’s famously intense, profanity-filled scene in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Playing Damian gave actor Daniel Franzese a newfound sense of bravery.
“Being cast as ‘Damian’ in Mean Girls initially terrified me,” Daniel Franzese shared on Bent. However, he quickly realized the significance of the role: “Damian was an authentic portrayal of a gay teen—someone we laughed alongside, not at.” Years after the film’s release, Franzese revealed that men, often emotional, approached him to express gratitude for his representation and impact.
Although Franzese’s friends and family had long known about his sexuality, he chose to come out publicly a decade later. “If this helps even one person, it’s worth it,” he wrote at the end of his announcement. “I reminded myself that my name, Daniel, means ‘God is my judge.’ So, I’m no longer afraid—of Hollywood, the closet, or mean girls. For that, I thank Damian.”
Franzese is frequently reminded of his character’s iconic line by fans.
Since Mean Girls, Franzese has become easily recognizable. “No matter where I am, people know it’s me. I don’t exactly blend in,” he shared with Cosmopolitan in 2014. “Sometimes it’s overwhelming. I could be having a casual conversation at a bar, and suddenly someone shouts, ‘YOU GO GLEN COCO!’”
Glen Coco, though a minor and nearly invisible character in Mean Girls, has achieved unexpected fame. He briefly appears in one scene, receiving four candy canes from Damian, but has since become a popular meme.
The oddly iconic Glen Coco was portrayed by Canadian actor David Reale.
In 2013, BuzzFeed launched a crucial investigation into Glen Coco’s identity. They found that while his role was uncredited, his face is fully visible in the scene where Gretchen reads her Julius Caesar essay (he sits directly in front of Lohan). Further research revealed that Glen Coco was played by David Reale, a Canadian actor known for roles in Suits, the U.S. adaptation of Skins, and a few episodes of Queer as Folk.
Amanda Seyfried was initially considered for the role of the otherworldly yet intimidating Regina George.
Amanda Seyfried. | Paul Hawthorne/GettyImagesIn 2013, following her intense roles in Les Miserables and Lovelace, Amanda Seyfried shared with IndieWire that she still considered her portrayal of Mean Girls’s delightfully naive Karen Smith as her finest work. “I was so inexperienced and pure back then,” she reflected. “Looking back, I thought I was doing a bad job, but the writing was impeccable, and Mark Waters’s direction made me shine. Tina Fey’s script was simply the best.”
Seyfried was nearly cast as Regina George, Waters revealed to Vulture in 2014. “She auditioned for Regina and brought a unique, almost otherworldly yet unsettling vibe to the role,” Waters explained. “Her take was more eerie but somehow less intimidating than Rachel’s.”
The character Janis Ian is based on a real person.
The real Janis Ian. | Michael Putland/GettyImagesJanis Ian made history as the first musical guest on SNL. She earned a Grammy for her song “At Seventeen,” which captures the essence of Mean Girls: the struggles and insecurities of teenage life.
In 2008, Ian shared with TIME that she connected deeply with her friend Janis Joplin over shared insecurities. “I adored her. We bonded because we both felt out of place—struggling with body image, bad skin, and fashion. She was incredibly protective of me in the most caring way.”
Lacey Chabert is frequently reminded of the word “fetch.”
In the realm of Mean Girls, few things are as iconic as the concept of “fetch,” popularized by Gretchen Wieners’s “That’s so fetch!” and Regina George’s retort, “Stop trying to make fetch happen.” The term’s lasting impact was even acknowledged by the Obama White House, which made a fetch-inspired joke involving Bo the First Dog in 2013.
“Every day, I receive countless tweets quoting lines from the movie, especially ‘That’s so fetch!’,” Lacey Chabert, who portrayed Toaster Strudel heiress Gretchen Wieners, shared with Entertainment Weekly in 2014. The word has even followed her into unexpected places. “Once, while picking up medicine at a pharmacy, the pharmacist looked at me and said, ‘You don’t look very fetch today.’”
Amy Poehler personally coached the actor who played Kevin G. on how to rap.
While Tina Fey wrote the Mean Girls script, she entrusted Amy Poehler with crafting Kevin Gnapoor’s talent-show rap. “Amy guided him through the rap and even helped with the choreography,” Waters revealed to Vulture. A viral YouTube video from 2004 shows Poehler performing the rap, with Fey and Lohan cheering her on.
Rajiv Surendra, who played Kevin G., has since become a professional calligrapher, crafting stunning chalk art, logos, and invitations. He’s also a potter, painter, and author. In 2016, his memoir, The Elephants in My Backyard: A Memoir of Chasing a Dream and Facing Failure, was published.
Rosalind Wiseman believes Tina Fey largely captured the essence of her book.
Wiseman clarifies that trust falls are not part of her workshops. “I don’t do trust falls, never have, and never will,” she stated in an interview with The Wire in 2014.
Despite this, she wouldn’t alter a thing. “Both Tina and I aim to empower women and amplify their voices,” Wiseman explained. “It’s incredible to collaborate with someone who shares that vision and says, ‘You’re smart, you’re funny, let’s make this happen.’”
Mean Girls was adapted into a Broadway musical...
Fey, alongside her husband Jeff Richmond and lyricist Nell Benjamin, developed a Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls. It premiered at Washington, D.C.'s National Theatre in October 2017 and later moved to Broadway's August Wilson Theatre in April 2018. The musical received 12 Tony nominations in 2018, and Fey won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical.
... Which later became a film adaptation.
The Broadway musical was adapted into a movie, released in early 2024. This film, also a musical, features a fresh cast, with Angou Rice as Cady Heron and Reneé Rapp as Regina George. Tina Fey returns to her original role from the first movie.
