With the classic Mean Girls getting new life with a reboot, Tina Fey is opening up about the original cast. Fey revealed that she had planned to get the original cast back in some capacity but couldn’t make it work.
Speaking with The New York Times, Fey said that the actor’s schedules kept them from playing in the film. Fey said they never got to the point where they actively discussed what roles the original actors might have played.
“We’ll never know,” Fey said. “They’re busy people, so it didn’t come together, but we tried, and we all love each other.”
Fey is reprising her role in the film and also wrote the screenplay. She opened up about returning to the work.
“I have other things that I’d like to do. But I have so much gratitude that this movie seemed to stick with people,” she told the Times. “When I look at it, I am reminded of how hard I worked on it in the first place. I feel like the bricks and mortar of it were the absolute best possible job I was capable of at the time. It’s not perfect, but it holds water.”
Fey expressed that she didn’t have much interest in doing a sequel to the original. She said that being young and in high school was key to the original. She didn’t think the concept could really work as adults.
“To me, part of why the stakes are so high in the story is because everyone’s so young and feelings are huge, love is huge and friendship is huge in a way [that it isn’t with] middle-age moms. I love writing about middle-aged people, but I don’t know,” she told the outlet.
‘Mean Girls’ Reunion Not in the Works
Rachel McAdams, who originally played Regina George, confirmed to Variety that they couldn’t make the schedule work.
“Tina [Fey] and I sort of dabbled with a few ideas, but it was tough to make it all work in the end,” she said. McAdams also opened up about not reuniting with her co-stars for a Walmart commercial.
“I guess I wasn’t that excited about doing a commercial if I’m being totally honest. I’ve never done commercials, and it just didn’t feel like my bag,” said McAdams, confirming that she “didn’t know that everyone” was coming back. “I would, of course, always love to be part of a Mean Girls reunion and hang with my Plastics. But yeah, I found that out later.”