Mean Girls: Blake Lively Almost Played Fan-Favorite Character

Blake Lively got her big break playing Bridget in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants back in 2005, and her popularity grew when she was cast as Serena ver der Woodsen in Gossip Girl in 2007, but she almost rose to fame slightly earlier. Apparently, the star was up for the part of Karen in Mean Girls (2004), which ultimately ended up going to Amanda Seyfried. Seyfriend recently revisited some of her most famous roles for Vanity Fair, and talked about her audition for Mean Girls which included Lively. 

“I’d flown out to L.A. for the first time with my mother. It was very exciting,” Seyfried shared. “I met Lacey Chabert [Gretchen Wieners] for the first time, and Lindsay Lohan [Cady Heron] was in the room, and Blake Lively was playing Karen, and then I was Regina.” She added, “I flew home, and they were like, ‘We think you’re more correct for Karen.’ …. So I was like, ‘Oh god, OK, sure.’”

In a previous interview with Cosmopolitan UK, Mean Girls casting director Marci Liroff revealed that Lively was a top pick to play Karen. “She came down to the final tests but, at some point, some of the filmmakers said to keep looking,” Liroff explained. “Amanda Seyfried had read for Regina, and we really liked her, but then [film producer] Lorne [Michaels] suggested, ‘Why don’t we make her Karen?’”

Who Is Starring in the Mean Girls Musical?

In 2017, Mean Girls was turned into a Broadway stage musical. Recently, it was announced that the musical is being adapted as a film for Paramount+. The new movie will star Angourie Rice (Spider-Man: Far From Home) as Cady and feature Reneé Rapp (Sex Lives of College Girls) as Regina George, a role she also played on Broadway, as well as Auli’i Cravalho (Moana) as Janis, and Jaquel Spivey (Broadway’s A Strange Loop) as Damian. Avantika (Senior Year), Christopher Briney (The Summer I Turned Pretty), and Bebe Wood (Love, Victor) have also been cast in the Mean Girls movie musical.  In a recent interview with Late Night With Seth Meyers, Tina Fey revealed she plans to appear in the musical movie alongside Tim Meadows. Fey wrote the original screenplay and played the role of Ms. Norbury while Meadows played the principal, Mr. Duvall.

Could you see Blake Lively as Karen in Mean Girls? Tell us in the comments!