When Mark Waters—who'd directed Lindsay Lohan successful Freaky Friday—visited the histrion successful Toronto portion she was filming Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, helium asked her if she wanted to beryllium successful his movie. And she had 1 relation connected her mind.

"I wanted to play Regina. I had conscionable played—in Confessions and Freaky—not the chill miss successful school," she recalled to Entertainment Weekly successful 2014. "I was inactive 17 years aged and I wanted to beryllium the chill miss connected set." But betwixt the occupation uncovering a Cady beardown capable to spell up against her Regina and the immense occurrence of Freaky Friday, it became wide to the powers-that-be that a alteration was necessary.

"Sherry Lansing, who was heading Paramount astatine the time, told us, 'We person to person Lindsay play the pb successful Mean Girls. It's conscionable not going to enactment having her play the villain, due to the fact that she present has an assemblage that won't judge that,'" Waters told Vulture successful 2014, revealing it was up to him to interruption the atrocious quality to the actress. "Lindsay benignant of begrudgingly said, 'Okay, I conjecture I'll play the lead. At slightest I get to person much lines.'"

Before McAdams could beryllium handed the relation of Regina, however, she had to sway the manager distant from different aboriginal co-star: Amanda Seyfried. The Mamma Mia! histrion was a superior favourite for the villainous pb anterior to becoming the delightfully daft Karen. "She tested for Regina and was benignant of brilliant, and precise antithetic than Rachel's approach. She played it successful a overmuch much ethereal but inactive benignant of scary way. She was much frightening, but oddly, little intimidating," Waters recalled, earlier adding that it was shaper Lorne Michaels who suggested her for "the dumb girl."

He continued, "So she came successful and work it and nailed it, and we got the champion of some worlds."

The sanction Mean Girls is fetch, but the accumulation squad astir didn't marque it happen.

"Our archetypal rubric was Homeschooled. We were going to marque it astir idiosyncratic who's been home-schooled their full lives and past has to navigate precocious school," Waters told The New York Times successful 2014. Luckily, a displacement successful the wide thought brought astir a alteration successful name. "Then we came up with the Africa concept," helium continued, "which was a existent boon due to the fact that we could comparison the kids' behaviour to animals."

When Paramount handed Mean Girls implicit to the MPAA for the ratings board, they tried to slap the teen drama with an R rating, if you tin judge it. And the workplace had to combat backmost to guarantee that the intended assemblage for the movie could really spell retired and spot it. "Even successful the PG-13 movie, we had to instrumentality a batch of things out," Fey told Variety successful 2018. "I retrieve thinking, If this was a movie astir a boys' school, 'Is your cherry popped?' wouldn't person to travel out." That enactment was replaced with the overmuch tamer "Is your muffin buttered?" Not everything was a concession connected the filmmakers' end, however. 

“The enactment successful the soil that I drew was the gag astir the wide-set vagina," Waters told Vulture. "The ratings committee said, 'We can’t springiness you a PG-13 unless you chopped that line.' We ended up playing the paper that the ratings committee was sexist, due to the fact that Anchorman had conscionable travel out, and Ron Burgundy had an erection successful 1 scene, and that was PG-13. We told them, 'You’re lone saying this due to the fact that it’s a girl, and she’s talking astir a portion of her anatomy. There’s nary intersexual discourse whatsoever, and to accidental this is restrictive to an assemblage of girls is demeaning to each women.’ And they yet had to backmost down.”

While it was Jonathan Bennett who was fortunate capable to inquire Lohan what time it was—October 3!—there were a fewer different contenders for the Aaron Samuels role. In a 2014 interrogation with Cosmopolitan, Daniel Franzese (who played Damian) revealed that the portion primitively belonged to a recognizable histrion who got himself fired astatine the array read. "This different histrion hadn't shaved and helium didn't instrumentality his chapeau off; helium was playing it truly cool," Franzese said, acrophobic to ID the histrion and embarrass him. "People kept coming implicit to him like, 'You know, you should truly instrumentality your chapeau off.' And then, close aft the array read, helium got fired and they called Jonathan Bennett, who I conjecture was their 2nd choice."

And that's not each Franzese spilled. "Also, Lindsay precocious told maine that, adjacent earlier [the histrion who got fired], James Franco was considered for the relation of Aaron Samuels," helium added. "I thought that was truthful cool—Bennett was large but that would've been cool."

As Fey explained to Entertainment Weekly successful 2014, "I tried to usage existent names successful penning due to the fact that it's conscionable easier." Case successful point? The addressed-but-hardly seen Glen Cocco, named aft her older brother's bully friend. "He's a movie exertion successful Los Angeles, and I ideate it's a symptom successful the butt for him," she explained to the publication. "Someone said to maine you could bargain a garment astatine Target that says 'You go, Glenn Cocco!' That was unexpected."

Other characters named aft existent people? Lizzy Caplan's Janis Ian, named aft the instrumentalist who was 1 of the earliest philharmonic guests connected SNL, and Damian, named aft Fey's precocious schoolhouse BFF—and existent TV Guide writer—Damian Holbrook. Cady, meanwhile, was named aft Fey's assemblage roommate Cady Garey. 

According to Franzese, the initial script contained a country for Damian that was cut before it was even filmed. "The archetypal ending shows what happened to Damian aft [junior year], and helium was going to audition for American Idol. Simon Cowell was going to telephone him chubby and past helium was going to tally up connected the signifier and punch him," helium told Cosmo. As the histrion told the magazine, determination were a batch of revisions to the archetypal ending, including a spot wherever Ms. Norbury busts Kevin G for selling ecstasy, truthful erstwhile she's investigated for being a cause pusher, determination are existent drugs successful her desk. 

"Janis and Damian person Kevin G. to spell to the schoolhouse committee erstwhile they sermon her punishment to confess that it was him, but Kevin G ne'er shows up," helium continued. "So Damian gets connected the podium and benignant of bulls--ts his mode done saying it was him to effort to support Miss Norbury."

Fey famously ne'er considered penning a sequel to the deed film, a determination she's gone connected grounds arsenic regretting now. "At the clip we did privation to commencement the speech astir the sequel, and for immoderate crushed I was like, 'No!!! We shouldn't bash that!'" she told EW successful 2014. "Now I look backmost and I'm like, 'Why?' But now, no—it's excessively precocious now." As she told Variety successful 2018, however, "Maybe it's better, due to the fact that we tin prevention each the vigor for this." This being the Mean Girls philharmonic she wrote with hubby and 30 Rock composer Jeff Richmond that premiered successful Washington D.C successful 2017 earlier opening connected Broadway successful April 2018. Nominated for 12 Tony Awards and 9 Drama Desk Awards that year, it won Fey the grant for Outstanding Book of a Musical astatine the latter.

And portion there's been nary sequel ever made, determination has been a movie produced bearing the moniker Mean Girls 2. The made-for-TV "sequel" aired connected ABC Family (now Freeform) successful 2011 and was a stand-alone communicative that had thing to bash with the archetypal movie speech from having Tim Meadows reprise his relation arsenic the school's principal. It was not well-received.