Nearly 20 years ago, the now-cult classic film Mean Girls hit movie theatres. With Tina Fey's comedic screenplay, Mean Girls remained a cultural mainstay in the years following. In 2018, Fey took part in adapting the film for the Broadway stage, and now, the worlds of cinema and theatre have united as one on screen, with the release of the Mean Girls movie musical.
"It was so fun to take what we learned doing the Broadway musical and the tentpole songs and then put them back into more of a cinematic, music video-style...they look really fluid and cool," Fey recently said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she touched base on Mean Girls, plus, her current comedy tour with former Saturday Night Live co-star Amy Poehler.
The film features a host of stage and screen favorites in the cast, including Renée Rapp reprising her stage performance as queen bee Regina George, Mean Girls original cast member Ashley Park as Madame Park, and Broadway alum and Tony nominee Jaquel Spivey (A Strange Loop) as Damian, to name just a few. Fey shares that Rapp playing Regina was the easiest casting decision.
"We knew we wanted Renée because she had done the Broadway show when she was 19," Fey said, with an emphasis on Rapp's age.
Fey also joked that casting The Summer I Turned Pretty star Christopher Briney as the swoon-worthy Aaron Samuels followed some surveying. "When he was on a Zoom callback...I FaceTimed like 12 of my 18-year-old daughter's friends, and I was like, 'What about this guy?' And they were all like, 'Yes! He's hot!'"
Watch Fey's full interview with Fallon in the video above for more behind-the-scenes stories about the Mean Girls movie musical, which hits movie theatres January 12.
With Fey writing the new film's screenplay after writing the 2004 original and the stage musical's book, the score features music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde). Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez, Jr. co-direct the project, with choreography by Kyle Hanagami. Read the reviews for the film here.
