Imagination is a treasure. Forget about Lego, in your mind you can create and innovate thousands of idea. I am no filmmaker, but I am a dreamer. Here I take a movie and put it in another era, try to imagine how it would be like.
If you read a lot of movie blogs or follow many different entertainment websites, I bet you came across a bunch of posts, articles, news or photos of Mean Girls in the past one week, and you probably wondered why the sudden interest in this teen comedy all over again. As it turns out, April 30th was the 10th anniversary (in U.S. that is, it didn't hit theater in Malaysia until early July) of this unexpected hit. 10 years, if you ask me it really is not so long ago. But seeing that so much have since changed fans were feeling sentimental to celebrate the film turning a decade old.
What have changed, you may ask? Well, back then Lindsay Lohan was still healthy and people actually believed she was the homeschooled freak and outcast. Rachel McAdams was relatively unknown and 2004 would turn out to be her star-making year when she had two hits that brought her up to A-List status (in case you have yet to put the pieces together, the other being The Notebook) but she had since chosen to stay low profile after a few active years. Amanda Seyfried has arguably become the most active and successful actress among the young cast in the past few years. Tina Fey (who also wrote the movie) and Amy Poehler... well, they are still bestie and they are still funny, except that their popularity was also increased rapidly.
It's very rare that Hollywood remakes a movie so soon, unless the original version is of foreign language. But I wanted to do a dedication piece this week as well so I figure it's fun to do a "Remake This" for the film. And because I am a big fan of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (and because this is Tina Fey's project) let's just say we retain all the adult cast (and that will include Tim Meadows as the principal). So what's left are the students. Besides Cady and the three Plastics (Regina, Gretchen and Karen), there are also Janis and Damian. I will skip man-candy Aaron Samuels since you can basically cast any hunky actor and he will do just fine. OK, if you insist, Liam Hemsworth. He is no stranger to man-candy anyway (looking at you, Hunger Games series).
This is meant to be hypothetically fun so I try to avoid statement like "blonde actress with perfect comic timing" or "newcomer with brunette hair", must be names I know. And if I were to name drop teen actresses that are actively working now, the five names I can immediately call out are Chloë Grace Moretz, Hailee Steinfeld, Saoirse Ronan, Dakota Fanning and Abigail Breslin. Let's say they are all in, but who plays what?
Cady Heron: Originally played by Lindsay Lohan. A homeschooled mathematics genius who is the newcomer to the public school, she is soon getting pulled into the Plastics, a group of rich spoilt girls led by Regina George. Cady goes through a transformation over the course of the movie, from a shy and down-to-earth neighborhood girl to a mean girl wearing heavy make-up. For this role, I'm thinking Saoirse Ronan. She is by far the most versatile among the five actresses and also my most favorite, so I can't give her a supporting role. True, she had not exactly played any fabulous character before but that is not a problem. Cady is never meant to be a Plastic, so even when she is one she doesn't look as comfortable being one as Regina and her gang. Saoirse would nail the part perfectly.
Regina George: The 'Queen Bee" of the Plastics originally played by Rachel McAdams, she is the talking point of everyone in the school. You either love her or hate her, but there's no denying the world does revolve around her... the world of the high school, at least. For this love-to-hate-her role, it was going to be either Dakota, Hailee or Abigail, but I figure Dakota Fanning would be the most believable as a "queen bee". I have not watched any of the Twilight movies beyond the first one so I have no idea who's who in the series, but I presume she's evil in it? She will need to project the kind of evil underneath a fake surface, but it should be easy for an actress of her caliber.
Gretchen Wieners: One of the Plastics, played by Lacey Chabert. Her father invented Toaster Streudels, and she knows everything about everyone. She desperately tries to make the word "fetch" happen, and she's jealous of Cady when she becomes Regina's "BFF". Unlike Karen who is lovably dumb, Gretchen lacks the quality to be adored by fans. In fact, she is arguable the least likable character among the five so it is a tricky part to play. I would assign this role to Hailee Steinfeld (take one for the team, hee), because I can't picture her as Karen and right from the start I knew who I want for Janis.
Karen Smith: She's the dumb but harmless Plastic who says things like "If you are from Africa, why are you white?" and "I'm kinda psychic, I have a fifth sense". Originally played to perfection by Amanda Seyfried, this would be the perfect role for Heather Morris, a.k.a. Brittany from Glee, since Karen and Brittany are basically the same role; but because Heather Morris is so much older than the others and she's not among the five on my initial consideration I have to give up casting her as Karen. Instead I will give this role to Abigail Breslin. She has left her Little Miss Sunshine image behind, all she needs now is to prove she can ad-lib silly one-liners.
Janis Ian: Portrayed by Lizzy Caplan, Janis is the punk rock freak that befriends Cady and convinces her to become a Plastic for her selfish reason of wanting to know all the dumb things Regina and co. say. It was all fun until Cady gets turned into a Plastic for real, and Janis feels betrayed by Cady. Among the five actresses, it was always going to be Chloë Grace Moretz. She's the weirdest (look at her film choice), and she has no problem channeling the sarcastic and always angry Janis.
Last but not least, there's too-gay-to-function Damian, another friend of Cady and Janis. This is your typical gay character in Hollywood comedy who's sole purpose is to provide comic relief (yes, even Tina Fey did that). For this role I need a little help, so I scrolled through Wiki-pages looking for actors around the same age as the actresses above. It's hard, believe me. I am not familiar with most of them, and of them who I do know they are usually too hunky to play Damian. At last I saw the name Mark Indelicato. Who, you ask? Mark played Betty's nephew Justin in Ugly Betty the TV series. That's right, that campy teenager. It's typecast I know, but nobody else came to mind so I'll settle with him.
The genre of teen comedy is at its peak during end of 1990s and early 2000s, they don't really make good high school films nowadays anymore. Mean Girls was among the last of the golden era, with a sharp script and star-making performances. Should they remake the film (which is unlikely, at least not in a near future), would my choice of cast be plausible?
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