‘She Was On Set Every Day:’ Mean Girls’ Cast Explains How Tina Fey Supported Them During Filming
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2004's Mean Girls is one of the best teen movies of all time, remaining quotable and eventually becoming a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. Said musical is being adapted for film in the new Mean Girls movie, which is officially in theaters now. And the Mean Girls cast recently spoke to CinemaBlend about how Tina Fey supported them on set, with one actor even saying "she was on set every day."
Tina Fey wrote the screenplay for the original Mean Girls movie, and also wrote the book and lyrics for the Broadway musical of the same name. So she obviously knew this universe quite well when writing the screenplay for the new movie musical. As you can see in the video above, I had the privilege of speaking the cast, where Aaron Samuels actor Christopher Briney shared just how involved Fey was in the day-to-day shooting. As he put it:
She was on set like every day. She was always watching. She was always making sure that, I would imagine at least, that it fit the world she sees this project in. I came in with my own version of Aaron and there were some times when there would be notes and we pushed them in different directions ... she sort of helped push me in the direction that she wanted him to be in.
Talk about being a resource. While Tina Fey could have easily just washed her hands clean of Mean Girls' screenplay and shown up for her scenes as Ms. Norbury, she was on set a lot. That work was really appreciated by the young cast, who had big shoes to fill in their roles. Ultimately this process paid off, as I shared in CinemaBlend's Mean Girls review.
Fey shared the important of surprising the audience for the new Mean Girls, and you can tell how much work and specificity she's put into this universe. It sounds like she was quite the collaborator for the movie's cast, and put in the hours on set.
Another Mean Girls star who spoke to me about Tina Fey's presence on set was Karen actress Avantika. I asked about how she found her version of Amanda Seyfried's character, and she shared how Fey was a major resource during production. As she put it:
I think Tina Fey being there was just so helpful, and having her be like guiding me and like being there just to validate everyone's choices and brainstorm with them. She was a massive part of production and really impacted all of our takes on the character
Sounds about right. This new cast of actors no doubt felt pressure inhabiting beloved roles that had been played so well in the OG Mean Girls as well as the Broadway musical. As such, Avantika found Tina Fey's presence super helpful, because there's no one who knows this franchise better. In the end, Avantika was a serious scene stealer throughout the film's runtime.
Mean Girls is in theaters now. Be sure to check out the 2024 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
