Over 20 years after being in Mean Girls, Rachel McAdams remains a standout star. From blockbusters like Doctor Strange to beloved romance like The Notebook to acclaimed dramas like Spotlight to fun comedies like Game Night, she has demonstrated wonderful range and skill, and she has also proven to be a box office draw (as demonstrated just this past weekend with the #1 debut of Send Help). Her talent has been apparent from the beginning, so one would be understood asking this question: why didn’t she play the leading role of Cady Heron in Mean Girls instead of the villainous Regina George?
For what it’s worth, McAdams auditioned for the movie thinking that she wouldn’t get any role at all – as she revealed in a recent interview with People. She initially went out for the role of Cady, but she recalls not having any real confidence in herself to land the role. Said the actress,
I remember thinking, ‘This is a futile exercise. I will never be hired for Cady.’ I was just starting out, and it was the main character. I just did not think I was at that point in my life where I would be chosen for that. So I just kind of went in and had fun.
At the time, Rachel McAdams was in the earliest era of her career. Her filmography included a couple of TV movies, a couple of single-episode TV show appearances, a couple of indies… and the female lead of the critically panned Rob Schneider comedy The Hot Chick. She was just starting out – but she did love the Mean Girls screenplay written by Tina Fey and wanted any kind of part in it.
It wasn’t her audition itself that stopped her from landing the role of Cady, however. At the time, she was in her mid-20s, and while it’s far from uncommon for actors that age to play high schoolers, McAdams wasn’t deemed right for the ingénue lead… but she was deemed to have the right look for the movie’s antagonist. The actress recalls director Mark Waters explaining it to her, saying:
‘You’re too old to play Cady, but you’re just right for Regina. Regina has been around the block a few times and maybe has a, I don't know if I'd call her an old soul, but she's got a few more miles on her than Cady.’ So I took it as a compliment.
Lindsay Lohan was the big headlining star and earned the lion’s share of the acclaim when the teen-centric comedy went on to make $130.1 million at the global box office – but it certainly doesn’t seem like Rachel McAdams is complaining about how things turned out.
Should you care to see her excellent talent exhibited in her latest work, the aforementioned Send Help, directed by Sam Raimi and co-starring Dylan O’Brien, is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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