Summary
- A Gossip Girl star auditioned for the role of Karen in Mean Girls but ultimately lost it to Amanda Seyfried.
- Amanda Seyfried thinks she was cast in the role of Karen because she had a similar personality to the character in high school.
- The original Mean Girls cast is unlikely to do a sequel, but they reunited for a Walmart commercial in 2023, with the exception of Rachel McAdams.
It's hard to imagine anyone else besides Amanda Seyfried as the ditzy Karen in Mean Girls, but in fact, Blake Lively almost played Karen Smith in Mean Girls instead of Amanda Seyfried.
In a 2023 interview, the Jennifer's Body actress recalled how Blake Lively auditioned for her Mean Girls role. Amanda Seyfried initially auditioned for the role of Regina George in the 2004 movie.
In a 2021 interview with the Mean Girls casting director, Marci Liroff revealed Blake Lively was the top pick for the role of Karen, but she “hadn’t done The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants yet, for Karen." Mean Girls premiered in 2004, a year before Blake Lively hit our screens in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005. Lively's big break would come later in 2007, playing Serena on Gossip Girl.
In the following, we will look at how close Blake Lively came to playing Karen in Mean Girls and why the role ultimately went to Amanda Seyfried. We also reveal how the original Mean Girls cast felt about creating Mean Girls 2.
Amanda Seyfried's Mean Girls Role Almost Went To Blake Lively
During the script table reads, it was Blake Lively who was set to play the part of Karen in Mean Girls.
“I’d flown out to LA for the first time with my mother. It was very exciting,” Amanda Seyfried told Vanity Fair about auditioning for the iconic Lindsay Lohan film. Seyfried originally auditioned to play Regina George (which later went to Rachel McAdams) alongside Lacey Chabert, Lindsay Lohan, and Blake Lively.
“I met Lacey Chabert for the first time, and Lindsay Lohan was in the room, and Blake Lively was playing Karen, and then I was Regina.” Amanda Seyfried told the outlet. She was fairly sure she hadn't landed the role after the audition process. “I flew home, and they were like, ‘We think you’re more correct for Karen.’ So I was like, ‘Oh God, okay, sure.’”
“[Lively] came down to the final tests, but, at some point, some of the filmmakers said to keep looking,” casting director Marci Liroff told Cosmopolitan UK in 2019. “Amanda Seyfried had read for Regina, and we really liked her, but then [film producer] Lorne [Michaels] suggested, ‘Why don’t we make her Karen?’”
The Mean Girls casting director also revealed in the 2021 interview that High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale auditioned for the part of Gretchen Wieners, which ultimately went to Lacey Chabert, who "came in and just got it on the very first take."
How Amanda Sefyfried Landed The Role Of Karen In Mean Girls
Amanda Seyfried feels she got the role of Karen because she had a similar personality as the character in high school. “I think I got Karen because I played that person in high school in order to stay out of the drama,” she said.
Ultimately, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels encouraged the producers to cast the In Time star as Karen. "Amanda Seyfried had read for Regina, and we really liked her," casting director Liroff explained, "but then Lorne suggested, 'Why don't we make her Karen?'"
Jonathan Bennett Was Only Cast In Mean Girls Because An A-Lister Got Fired
Jonathan Bennett literally had to fly in the night before shooting began on Mean Girls because he was a last-minute replacement.
In a Vanity Fair interview, Amanda Seyfried praised her character for being genuine and simply wanting to make people feel better.
“I think the reason we love Karen so much — and also the reason that she’s so funny — is that she is just being brutally honest, and it’s so beautiful, and it’s what makes her so endearing."
“And she’s not that smart, but she totally knows it. And everything that she reacts to is just her truth, her true reaction. And I think we all love people like that because we can trust them.”
Will There Be A Mean Girls Sequel?
Amanda Seyfried says Mean Girls 2 (with the original cast) is unlikely to happen.
“I would kill just to do one week, all of us playing our own roles on Mean Girls on Broadway,” Seyfried told Interview in regards to the musical show. “Because a Mean Girls 2 is never going to happen, is it?”
Lindsay Lohan was less keen on the idea of joining the musical, which will be released as a movie in 2024. “I don’t know. I heard something about it being a movie musical, and I was like, ‘Oh no.’ We can’t do that. It has to be the same tone.”
“Anyway, Tina [Fey] is busy,” Seyfried added, referring to the writer of Mean Girls. “She’ll get around to it. Listen, we’re all part of each other’s worlds whether we like it or not, and it is really nice to be in contact as adults.”
Lohan added, “Yeah, everyone’s still the same. It’s fun to have certain memories that we can’t share with anyone else.”
Rachel McAdams has also expressed an interest in returning to Regina George. "Tina and I sort of dabbled with a few ideas, but it was tough to make it all work in the end,” McAdams explained. “I was really down for whatever she wanted to do. I think the direction it went in will be fantastic, and I cannot wait to see it.”
What Does The Original Mean Girls Cast Feel About The Upcoming Mean Girls The Musical Movie?
The original Mean Girls reportedly got a "disrespectful" offer that caused them not to join the upcoming musical movie.
Despite the actresses' claims about Mean Girls 2, the movie actually exists. ABC Family produced a sequel to Mean Girls in 2011. The made-for-TV movie doesn't make any references to the original film. The only returning cast member or character is Tim Meadows, who plays Principal Ron Duvall.
In November 2023, Lacey Chabert, Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried reunited for a Walmart Black Friday commercial. Original cast members Rajiv Surendra (who played Kevin Gnapoor) and Daniel Franzese (Damian) also make appearances in the commercial, alongside singer Missy Elliott.
The one person noticeably missing from the lineup was Rachel McAdams. “I don’t know; I guess I wasn’t that excited about doing a commercial if I’m being totally honest,” the Spotlight actress told Variety. “A movie sounded awesome, but I’ve never done commercials, and it just didn’t feel like my bag. Also… I didn’t know that everyone was doing it. I would, of course, always love to be a part of a Mean Girls reunion and hang with my plastics, but yeah, I found that out later."
