Mean Girls is a film not many of us will ever forget. Having first seen it while trying to navigate the world of high school at the time myself, I remember watching Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan, try to fit in to North Shore High School. I remember telling myself I'd never homeschool my children so as not to expose them to the same kind of scenario later in life, and I remember seeing Regina George – leader of The Plastics and Queen Bee of the whole school – and watching her with equal measures of admiration and fear.
Played by Rachel McAdams, Regina's commanding presence and "popular girl looks" were nothing compared to her intensely high level of social intelligence, making her one of the most manipulative characters cinema has ever seen. If you think I'm being over-dramatic, then boo you and go and watch it again now. You'll know.
And apparently I'm not the only one who still shudders whenever I think of Regina asking to please tell Aaron Samuels that his hair "looks sexy pushed back". It seems McAdams also feels personally victimized by her 2004 character, even after all these years. In a recent interview with New York Times, the 39-year-old looked back at all the roles she's played, and said Regina is the one that still haunts her.
When asked if a single day went by where she didn't think about the character, she chuckled and said: "Does Regina George haunt me every day? She does have that quality."
And who can blame her? She did do a lot of awful stuff, like taking hoop earrings away from Gretchen Wieners forever, treating all the hot boys at school as toy-things and therefore putting them off-limits to her friends or, I don't know, THE FACT THAT SHE MADE A HORRIBLE BOOK WRITING DOWN HORRIBLE THINGS ABOUT EVERYONE AT SCHOOL AND THEN RELEASED IT. No, I wasn't in it, but I still can't get over how goddamn mean that was.
McAdams went on to say that she owes a lot to the character too though. "I have to thank Regina George for giving me some longevity," she added. "I’m forever grateful to Tina Fey [the Mean Girls screenwriter] and Mark Waters [the director]."
It's true that Regina might've helped launch McAdams' Hollywood career. The Oscar-nominated star appeared next to Ryan Gosling in The Notebook only a few months after Mean Girls was released, and has since gone on to star in a number of other blockbusters. It seems she had a good feeling about the role of Regina too, recalling how enthusiastic she was to audition for the part.
"I remember when I read it, I called my agent right away and said, 'I will play any part in this, please, please, please,'" she said. "I was at the beginning of my career, and it was a lofty thing out there, that I really, really, really wanted to do."
And it seems we should also thank Regina for helping McAdams be typecast as similar characters: "I’m always looking for larger-than-life characters, which is probably why I like playing villains. They get away with so much."
But I still won't forgive you, Regina, and I still won't tell you if butter is a carb or not.