'Mean Girls' Directors on (Finally) Making Fetch Happen
The trials of a newcomer is a tale as old as time, but despite its age, the story remains relatable. For director Arturo Perez Jr., a life of many moves—from Mexico to Ottawa, Canada, and then Texas—gave him a firsthand education in that archetype and taught him the process of gaining entrée into the hierarchies of high school. Those moves also prepared him to for his latest job, co-directing a new adaptation of the film-turned-Broadway-musical Mean Girls.
“Essentially,” his co-director Samantha Jayne tells Perez as they discuss the making of the movie musical, “you were Cady Heron.”
Heron (played in the new film by Angourie Rice and in the original, of course, by Lindsay Lohan) is a new student who is welcomed into her school's it-girl clique only to earn the ire of its leader (Reneé Rapp's Regina George) after crushing on her ex-boyfriend. What follows are the trials and tribulations of friendships, young love, and social hierarchy. Jayne remembers the liberation she felt at seeing the social structure she navigated as a teen exposed when the movie first debuted in 2004. The film had a “kind of humor that’s not saccharine sweet because it’s about high school girls,” Jayne says. “It’s a cutting, sharp kind of humor.”
Fast forward two decades and the story that spoke to socially anxious teens everywhere has undergone a reboot courtesy of a star-studded blend of the classic film, the Broadway show, and a modern perspective. But reimagining a 20-year-old film comes with challenges—especially when it was adapted for another medium.
In the case of Mean Girls, it went from a blockbuster film to a two-year run on the Broadway stage. “We always knew that in order for this to resonate, it had to be surprising,” Jayne says. The Broadway adaptation featured a shift from the perspective of Cady's inner monologue to that of her friends, Janice (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damien (the hilarious Jacquel Spivey). “They want everything to feel as emotional as a teenager’s brain feels,” Jayne says. “They want to take you on a roller coaster,” Perez adds.
To immerse themselves in the terrain of the teenage mind, Perez and Jayne began field research by interviewing current students at Perez’s former high school. Those interviews schooled them in the unending machinations of social media—the horror of having an embarrassment in homeroom being made public by first period, the duplicitousness of what is said in person versus what is broadcast electronically, and the seeming permanence of online material—and how those slights and scares loomed large in the corner of students’ minds.
“It’s so hard because it’s like your popularity is quantified,” Jayne says. “It boggles my mind how anybody is strong enough to get through high school these days.” Equipped with their newfound enlightenment, the duo embarked on a journey to tell a story designed to entertain and lift young people up while encouraging audiences to do the same.
Next stop: production, which took the two to a suburban New Jersey high school in the dead of winter. As the team began to create North Shore High, Payne remembers one of the first cast gatherings during which they met in the director’s classroom. Payne and Perez could see the young cast opening up to one another, becoming like a real clique and thinking, this is going to be fun.
The movie's wardrobes played a major role in helping to tell its story. Tom Broeker, a costume designer who has worked on Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, and House of Cards collaborated with the cast and crew to create authentic and personal wardrobes specific to each character. “Reneé’s Regina would wear loose-fitting athletic pants and a crop top with badass sneakers as opposed to a more delicate femme look,” Payne explains. “And that’s fashion now, but that’s also Reneé.”
The evolution of the clothes worn by Cady Heron also reflects the plot in notable, tangible ways. Cady starts utilitarian, wearing hiking boots (fresh from her life in Africa) and possessing zero fashion knowledge. Cady quickly attempts to learn how to craft her image for her new friends while stumbling through oversized garments she thinks are correct but don’t quite fit. A mini-skirt and heels soon follow, but as she learns more about herself and those in her posse, she returns full-circle to a wardrobe all her own. To achieve these looks, the collaborative effort of the crew relied on 2000s nostalgia, nested Pinterest boards, and a team of creatives who worked to create a grounded and authentic high school entourage.
Another key to updating Mean Girls for a modern moment? Working with the film’s writer and producer Tina Fey. Her “infectious” collaborative spirit allowed Perez and Jayne to take the story and make it their own. “There was never an idea that we had that she didn’t listen to. Anybody’s idea, it’s game,” Perez says. “She was very open, putting her own spin on it in a really fun and surprising way,” Jayne adds. Given free rein to reimagine Fey’s concept, Perez and Jayne were able to hold the integrity of the original while bringing something new and unexpected to screens.
While the story of an outsider longing to find her way in might be timeless, this new take on Mean Girls offers something of a twist: the newcomers are welcomed into the fold and given the opportunity to prove themselves, and we're all better for it.
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