Amanda Seyfried has recently revealed how Mean Girls ended up negatively impacting her career, leading to her becoming pigeonholed at every turn when she wanted to further grow and advance within her craft. Seyfried starred in Paramount's 2004 teen hit comedy as Karen Smith, a member of the infamous popular girl clique known as 'The Plastics.'
Although she was definitely the more docile and sweeter one out of the group, Smith fit the stereotypical dumb blonde trope to a tee. Mean Girls was actually loosely based on Rosalind Wiseman's Queen Bees and Wannabes self-help book - in other words, a guide on how to navigate and deal with the real ‘plastics’ out in the world. The Paramount film follows teenager Cady Heron as she transfers to a public high school after being homeschooled all of her life in Africa. Cady quickly learns of the impending chaos, drama, and evaporation of self that comes along with teenage social cliques. Lindsay Lohan was cast as the main lead and character (Cady) alongside cast members Rachel McAdams as the Plastic notorious leader Regina, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey. In fact, Fey also served as a scriptwriter and the film was helmed by director Mark Waters. Mean Girls hit theaters back in 2004 and instantly received positive feedback from audiences and critics alike.
Mean Girls also proved to be quite the box-office success, bringing in over $130 million up against its $17 million budget. Since its 2004 release, Mean Girls seems to have become even more popular throughout the years, building quite a passionate and loyal fan base. Although the film did launch many of its cast members into sudden fame and stardom, Seyfried found herself imprisoned by it. In a recent interview with Variety, Seyfried took a trip down memory lane to reflect on her pivotal time spent making Mean Girls, which seemingly overnight became everyone’s favorite comedy of all time, a generational staple.
While Seyfried acknowledged that Mean Girls helped her rise to stardom, she also noted how it was another role that prevented her from being typecast. "Mean Girls got me on the map. It really got my foot in the door, but getting pigeonholed was the thing you had to fight. Back in 2004, I had to be really careful to not just be 'the pretty blonde.' So at the very beginning of my career, if I hadn’t done Big Love, I was going to be Karen Smith," Seyfriend explained. "All the auditions I had for my first pilot season were just, like, blonde girlfriends. I wasn’t going to be the lead, because, for whatever reason, I didn’t fit into that. I don’t know what it was."
Seyfried's fear of being stuck forever as the 'ditsy blonde' is completely valid, especially since Hollywood has just now started seeing more opportunities when it comes to the complexities and dimensionality offered by female leads. Luckily for Seyfried, although Mean Girls may have put her within a box for quite some time regarding what parts she was offered, eventually she would go star in the hit franchise Mamma Mia, the horror classic Jennifer's Body, as well as David Fincher's Mank, for which she received both an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Fans can catch up with Seyfried's most recent work in the hit limited series The Dropout, which is now available for streaming on Hulu.
Mean Girls is now available to stream on Paramount Plus.
Source: Variety