“It Feels Really Epic”: Mean Girls Star Angourie Rice on Remaking the Cult Classic

Millennials, you might want to take a seat.

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the original Mean Girls movie. That’s two decades of “Stop trying to make fetch happen” and “Get in loser, we’re going shopping”. And if you felt triggered when the Mean Girls trailer dropped in November, it’s probably because, yeah, we’re the cool moms now.

Angourie Rice , on the other hand, is undoubtedly Gen Z. The Australian actor started her career aged 11; now 22, she’s already worked with Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown , Jennifer Garner in The Last Thing He Told Me , Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in The Nice Guys , and Stranger Things ’s Gaten Matarazzo in Honor Society.

She’s no stranger to reinventing pop culture characters either, playing Betty Brant in Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise. And in January we’ll see her version of maths-nerd-turned-Plastics-queen-bee Cady Heron, following Lindsay Lohan’s famed performance.

The 2024 Mean Girls isn’t a straight-up remake, though. Writer Tina Fey has kept all the main beats of the movie – including some of the most quotable lines and scenes – but this time it’s a musical based on the Broadway production, first staged in 2017. Pop star and actor Reneé Rapp, who played Regina George in some of the Broadway shows, is the reboot’s main antagonist. Auli‘i Cravalho, who voiced Moana, steps into the role of Janis. Busy Philipps replaces Amy Poehler as Regina’s mom, and Jon Hamm brings star quality to Coach Carr.

And that’s before we list out the fresher faces: Bebe Wood (The New Normal) and Avantika (The Sex Lives of College Girls) playing Gretchen and Karen, or Tony and Grammy Award-nominated Jaquel Spivey as Damian, and Christopher Briney (The Summer I Turned Pretty) as Aaron.

The only actors reprising their roles from the original are Tina Fey as Ms Norbury and Tim Meadows as Principal Duvall (and we’re so glad they are). Gone are the three-way landline calls and hand-held video cameras of the first film; instead there’s the far scarier rapid-fire world of social media and, we’re told, more self-deprecating jokes better suited to the current generation.

Broadsheet spent five minutes with our shiny new Plastics recruit, Angourie Rice.

Angourie, when you were a kid you watched Mean Girls on repeat. Do you have any favourite scenes or quotes from the original movie?
My favourite moment is when Gretchen is in the bathroom talking about how annoyed she is with Regina, then there’s a match fade to her in the classroom reading, saying “We should all just totally stab Caesar”. That to me is such a brilliant moment of cinema. Also, when Regina says “That’s the ugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen”. I love that moment.

It’s such a quotable movie. Did you find the prospect of a remake daunting at all?
Oh, for sure. It’s such a part of our language and our vocabulary – it’s a cultural shorthand – so I felt a big responsibility to be a part of a new interpretation. It was a huge part of my childhood, and for many other people as well, so there’s a lot of responsibility that comes along with that. I love it so much, and something I recognised going into the project is that everyone was doing it out of a love for Mean Girls. All those moments of paying homage to the original – keeping those iconic lines, props and costumes – are all in there because everyone who was doing it was doing it because they love the story.

Of course, this version is based on the Broadway musical (which in turn is based on the movie from 2004). So singing and dancing are a big part of the role. Did you have a favourite song to perform?
One of my favourite musical moments is the opening of the movie. I don’t want to give too much away, but I think when audiences see it they will understand why. It feels really epic. It’s a really ambitious way to start the movie, which we knew – it was hard to film – but it’s spectacular.

What was it like working with Tina Fey?
She’s incredible. She’s got that detail-oriented mindset as a writer. Any question I had about a moment or what this line means, she had an answer – and if she didn’t then it was “Ok, I’ll try to figure something out. I’ll write something new”. She also had so many really funny alt lines, and I loved seeing her work in that way. She had like five different jokes and only one makes it into the movie, and I feel so lucky that I got to hear the four other jokes.

Any that you can share?
No! That’s just for me.

Have you been in touch with Lindsay Lohan about the role at all?
No. I was so excited to get the project because I knew Tina was a part of it, so I got to ask her questions about her memories of filming the original movie and how when they were making it they didn’t know it was going to take off in this way. So getting to speak to her and also Tim Meadows, who also reprises his role [as Principal Duvall], that was really really fun.

I’m sure everyone’s said this, but it’s been so fetch to talk to you.
Grool. Thank you.

Mean Girls is in cinemas from January 11, 2024.