MEAN GIRLS TURNS
15 Celebrating the iconic chick flick as it comes of age
It’s been 15 years since the global rule of wearing pink on Wednesdays was created and unofficial Burn Books were made within high school friendship groups. With multiple iconic lines like “She doesn’t even go here” and “You go, Glen Coco” that are still being referenced today, there’s no doubt that Mean Girls will continue to be enjoyed for years to come. When reflecting on the 2004 comedy about teen bullies and boyfriends, director Mark Waters told Cosmopolitan UK that if the film were to have been made in 2019, it would’ve been more tame. “There’s a lot in the movie that is very ‘un-PC’,” he said of the flick starring Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Tina Fey. “We made lighthearted jokes about the gym coach having affairs with the students with lines like, ‘Step away from the underage girls.’”
He added: “You can’t really make that joke, it’s very transgressive. We did it in a lighthearted no big deal way, but it is a pretty big deal.”
Actor and comedian Daniel Franzese – who played Damian – also opened up about how the film might be different if it were produced today. “If the movie came out today, Damian might have had a boyfriend,” Franzese told Cosmopolitan US. “He’s in that sweet spot of trying to figure out who he is but decided he’s going to wait to do that until after they leave school.”
He also revealed that some 15 years after the film’s release, he still gets recognised in public as Damian. “I try to stay funny and humble and kind because I do really feel like a lot of people have such an emotional attachment to this movie,” he said. “I also get ‘You go, Glen Coco’ a lot.”
And while Mean Girls is often recited for its humorous punch lines and dramatised
portrayal of ‘girl world’, the film holds several moral values – including that the truth always comes out eventually (cue Burn Book secrets and Regina cheating on Aaron with Shane Oman) and that women should lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. Thank you, Ms Norbury, for telling a room full of high school ladies that: “You all have got to stop calling each other s--ts and wh---s,” because “it just makes it OK for guys to call you s--ts and wh---s”, too.
In an interview with Variety, Lindsay Lohan (aka Cady Heron, or as Kevin Gnapoor referred to her, Africa) revealed her favourite scene from the cult film was the “That’s so fetch” exchange between Regina George (McAdams) and Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) after the Winter Talent Show. “Actually my favourite