Rachel McAdams Made Lindsay Lohan Nervous On The Set Of ‘Mean Girls’

Rachel McAdams made co-star Lindsay Lohan extremely nervous on the set of the 2004 comedy Mean Girls.

It’s hard to believe that writer Tina Fey and director Mark Waters’ adaptation of Rosalind Wiseman’s book arrived on the big screen nearly 10 years ago. To celebrate the film’s anniversary, Waters decided to share a few interesting behind-the-scenes stories.

According to the filmmaker, Rachel McAdams was originally interested in the role of new girl Cady Heron. Lindsay Lohan had her eye on the Regina George character, otherwise known as the leader of the Plastics. This obviously isn’t how everything eventually played out.

After Waters observed how the actresses responded to one another, the director decided to cast McAdams as Regina and Lohan as Heron. This definitely worked out for the best, especially considering Lindsay was incredibly nervous around Rachel while shooting the flick.

The filmmaker explained:

“When Lindsay was acting with Rachel, she got very shy, because Rachel was older and a very accomplished actress. She’d come in the room and not talk to Lindsay — she was very focused. Lindsay kind of got nervous around her, and I thought that, more than anything, was going to be the deciding factor, the fact that she affected Lindsay in that way.”

Although Rachel McAdams excelled at portraying Regina George, Lindsay Lohan wasn’t exactly thrilled with Waters’ decision to cast her as the lead. According to the director, Lohan didn’t have much interest in bringing Cady Heron to life.

“When I gave it to her, she was like, ‘I f***ing love Regina George! This is exactly the part I want to play.’ So we did a read-through, and we were trying to look for somebody to play the role of Cady, but frankly, we didn’t find anyone we liked who felt strong enough to go up against Lindsay,” Waters explained.

He continued, “Sherry Lansing, who was heading Paramount at the time, told us, ‘We have to have Lindsay play the lead in Mean Girls. It’s just not going to work having her play the villain, because she now has an audience that won’t accept that.’ Lindsay kind of begrudgingly said, ‘Okay, I guess I’ll play the lead. At least I get to have more lines.'”

Although Lindsay Lohan really wanted to play the villain in Mean Girls, apparently everything worked out for the best. The film has a strong and very loyal following to this day.

What do you think about Rachel McAdams originally tackling the role of Cady Heron in Mark Waters’ Mean Girls?

[Image Via Screen Cap]