Wow, Mean Girls Could Have Been A Very Different Movie. Casting Changes And Alternate Endings
Amazingly, its been a decade since the release of Mean Girls, the movie that has become a touch stone of pop culture for millennial teens. Written by Tina Fey and starring Lindsay Lohan, Mean Girls was a pretty much perfect high school comedy that still holds up 10 years later. But now we’re learning that it all could have been a lot different, as director Mike Waters and star Daniel Franzese have both given interviews detailing the changes Mean Girls went through before making it to the big screen.
In another juicy revaltion one person who could have joined the Mean Girls cast was James Franco, who was at one stage considered for the role of Aaron Samuels. Daniel Franzese aka Damien revealed to Cosmopolitan that before Jonathan Bennett was cast Franco was in the running for the role, as Franzese puts it Franco as Aaron “would’ve been cool.”
Next: How the Mean Girls script once looked
As for the Mean Girls script, the movie could have actually been a lot edgier and landed an R rating. The line about Amber D'Alessio 'making out with a hotdog' was actually something a little more risqué which Water’s changed in order to help secure a PG-13 rating. Some dialogue, however, was just too good for Water’s to budge on. The director told Vulture, "The line in the sand that I drew was the joke about the wide-set vagina. The ratings board said, 'We can't give you a PG-13 unless you cut that line,.’’ Water’s wouldn't give up on that one so easy and he ended up playing the sexism card because Anchorman had just been released and it managed a PG-13 rating despite some of its content. Water’s said he told the censorship board “You're only saying this because it's a girl, and she's talking about a part of her anatomy. There's no sexual context whatsoever, and to say this is restrictive to an audience of girls is demeaning to all women.’'
Finally the major difference between the Mean Girls we know and love and the original script is one we’re very glad didn't happen, the ending. In what seems overly complicated and slightly preposterous, Daniel Franzese said that in the original script he saw, “Kevin G. gets busted by Miss Norbury for selling ecstasy — so when they call her a drug pusher she actually has drugs in her desk, [because] she took them away from Kevin G. “ Then Janis and Damian convince Kevin G. to confess the drugs were his to the school board, but he never shows up so Damien takes the blame to protect Miss Norbury.
Lindsay Lohan switching to Cady and Rachel McAdams taking on Regina are two changes we’re very glad happened to _Mean Girl_s. As great as both actresses are, they were just so perfect in the roles they played that its amazing to think things could have been any different. As for the alternate ending, I think we’ll keep the one we got thanks. Really the only thing we might change if we got to magically go back in time might be the addition of James Franco. Sorry Jonathan Bennett, we’ve got to agree with Daniel Franzese, that would’ve been cool.