Amanda Seyfried's character in Mean Girls is almost played by the Gossip Girl star. Seyfried revealed to Vanity Fair in 2023 that Blake Lively auditioned for the role of Karen Smith, and she auditioned for the role of Regina George before being cast by Rachel McAdams.
"I flew to Los Angeles for the first time with my mom. It was very exciting," Seyfried recalled. "The first time I met Lacey Chabert, Lindsay Lohan was in the room. Blake Lively played Karen, and then I played Regina."
After returning home from her Mean Girls audition, Seyfried was told that the casting team thought she would be better suited for the role of Karen.
"They said 'We think you'd be a better fit for Karen.' So I was like, 'Oh my gosh, okay, of course,'" she added. The rest is history.
The film's casting director Marcy Lirov had similar memories of the audition. "Amanda Seyfried read 'Regina' and we really liked her," she told Vogue in 2021, revealing that Mean Girls producer Lorne Michaels suggested She plays Karen.
Lively is the first choice
Casting director Leigh Rove also revealed that Lively was originally their first choice to play Karen.
"We wanted Blake Lively to play Karen, who hadn't done Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants yet," she told Cosmopolitan. Although Lively made it to final screen tests, the film's producers "said they're going to keep looking."
Liloff also said Ashley Tisdale was expected to play Gretchen Venus, but Lacey Chabert "came in and got the opportunity the first time."
Lindsay Lohan wants to play Regina
Meanwhile, Lindsay Lohan had her heart set on playing the plastic Queen Bee before she was cast as Cady Heron.
"I wanted to play Regina. I just played someone in Confessions and Freaky who wasn't the cool girl in school," Lohan told Entertainment Weekly in 2014. "I was 17 and I wanted to be the cool girl on set."
However, "Lohan's Freaky Friday" director Mark Waters said the power felt in "Mean Girls" won't work with Lohan's villain. "Her current audience is not going to accept that," Waters told Vulture in 2014.
