Tina Fey has revealed that a major Mean Girls cast member was fired from the film days into production.
During a cast reunion presented by US journalist Katie Couric, Fey confirmed that Aaron Samuels, the love interest for Lindsay Lohan’s Cady in the film, was originally played by a different actor.
“I was actually cast last minute,” said actor Jonathan Bennett, who played Aaron in the film. “I was flown up the night before because they did a switch or something…”
“Yeah,” Fey replied. “Someone got fired.”
While Fey did not name the actor in question, Mean Girls director Mark Waters did confirm in 2019 that the original Aaron was dropped from the film.
“There was another actor – whose name I won’t mention here – who was cast as Aaron,” Waters told Cosmopolitan. “He’d had a great audition but came to the table read, sat with his nose in the script and mumbled the whole way through.
“By the time it was over, [producer Lorne Michaels] came over to me and said ‘That’s a shame, we’re going to have to go with that other guy.’ It was brutal and quick but that ended up being a happy accident as Jonathan was amazing and brought a lot to that part.”
Though it has never been confirmed whether he got so far as being cast, James Franco was reportedly attached to the Aaron role at one point.
“Lindsay recently told me that… James Franco was considered for the role of Aaron Samuels,” actor Daniel Franzese, who plays Damian in the film, revealed to Grazia in 2014. “I thought that was so cool.”
The entire Mean Girls cast, sans Amy Poehler, took part in the new reunion, which was held over Zoom and unveiled on Couric’s Instagram on 3 October. The event took place in aid of HeadCount, an organisation encouraging people to register to vote.
