“Mean Girls” Director Thought Rachel McAdams Was 'Too Old' to Play the Lead, so She Switched Roles with Lindsay Lohan
- - “Mean Girls” Director Thought Rachel McAdams Was 'Too Old' to Play the Lead, so She Switched Roles with Lindsay Lohan
Angela AndaloroAugust 19, 2025 at 5:06 AM
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Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan in "Mean Girls" -
Lindsay Lohan appeared as Cady Heron in Mean Girls, alongside Rachel McAdams as Regina George
Lohan was cast so early on in the process of the film that she signed on to play a different character
Director Mark Waters recently told Variety what the thought process behind the casting was and how it evolved
In another world, Lindsay Lohan could have been Regina George.
It's hard to imagine the Mean Girls star not portraying Cady Heron or a version of the filme without Rachel McAdams as the queen bee herself, but director Mark Waters said it was a distinct possibility that both actresses were in other roles.
Waters became involved with Mean Girls just after working with Lohan on Freaky Friday. "I know Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels and Sherry Lansing watched a rough cut of Freaky Friday and they decided they wanted both me and Lindsay," he told Variety.
Of the actresses, he said, "Lindsay’s energy is much more like Regina — I don’t mean that in a negative way. She’s just much more forceful and a really strong personality. I remember reading the Regina scenes with her and she was amazing."
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Lindsay Lohan (Cady), Amanda Seyfried (Karen), Lacey Chabert (Gretchen) and Rachel McAdams (Regina)
"But when we went to cast Cady, we couldn’t find anybody. I actually read an actress from Canada for the part, and I told her, 'You’re way too old for this part, but I think you’re a movie star, you’re amazing.' It was Rachel McAdams," Waters continued.
"When we couldn’t cast Cady, we went back to Rachel for Regina. And her reading a little bit older worked because it brought a certain power and maturity to it."
Lohan, herself, wasn't thrilled with the change at first, according to Waters. "She was a little bummed, she thought Regina was more fun," he shared.
"But she ended up embracing it. And Sherry Lansing pointed out that with Freaky Friday [being] such a big hit, she had to be the lead of the movie. It all worked out for the best."
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Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried and Lindsay Lohan accept 2005 MTV Movie Award for "Mean Girls"
Lohan herself spoke about her reasons for wanting to play the powerful head of the social ladder in Mean Girls.
“I wanted to play Regina,” Lohan revealed to Vogue in 2022. “I had just come off of Freaky Friday, and I really wanted to play a pretty, normal girl. I [didn’t want] to be the damaged teenager again!”
Ironically, art reflected life, with Lohan feeling like an outcast on the set of the film. Speaking to her Freakier Friday costars Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons about their bond in a recent interview with The New York Times, Lohan, 39, said, “You’re lucky because you’re close in age," referring to her issue fitting in during Mean Girls.
"It was hard because Rachel McAdams was so much older.” McAdams was 25 during filming, while Lohan was 17. Fellow Plastics Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert were 17 and 21, respectively.
“I was in school,” Lohan recalled. “Amanda and Lacey were all hanging out. It was hard for me to find where I fit in.”
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