As she aims to take the reins of an iconic part, Mean Girls star Bebe Wood reflects on her reunion with Tina Fey after 11 years after 30 Rock. The upcoming musical serves as a reimagining of Fey’s 2004 movie of the same name revolving around a teenage girl learning of the social hierarchy of high school after being homeschooled for years, particularly the harsh clique of girls known as the Plastics. Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s Angourie Rice leads the Mean Girls cast alongside Reneé Rapp, Aulli’i Cravalho, Christopher Briney, Jaquel Spivey, Wood, Avantika, Fey, Tim Meadows, Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps and Jon Hamm.
In honor of the movie’s release, Screen Rant spoke with Wood to discuss the creation of 2024’s Mean Girls. When asked about reuniting with Fey 11 years after her first professional role in 30 Rock, the Gretchen actor enthusiastically praised the nine-time Emmy winner for inspiring her to continue acting in her younger years and expressing gratitude that Fey “took her chance on me” by casting her in the new movie. Check out what Wood said below:
It’s really incredible. I was approaching, or maybe had already approached just past my ten-year milestone as a professional actor. So, it felt very apt, the timing of it. It’s just kind of crazy how it worked out that way. She was my very first scene partner as a professional actor, and I kind of found my own way into it. My parents didn’t push me toward entertainment. It was something that I kind of just wanted to do on my own.
I think if I had actually lived it and experienced it and realized what it was and felt, “I don’t think this is for me,” I don’t think I would’ve kept acting. But she was just so incredible on that one day that we worked together [that] I think I was totally inspired. I was like, “I totally want to keep doing this. This is fun.” And I just started working more regularly after that. In a way, it’s totally all because of her. She took her chance on me then and took her chance on me now, so it’s very special. It’s very, very special.
Tina Fey’s Comedy Career Has Helped Launch Many Stars Outside Of Mean Girls
While Lindsay Lohan was already a household name by the time the movie came out, Mean Girls was a launchpad for a number of its stars to become popular actors. Rachel McAdams would quickly follow up the 2004 comedy with celebrated turns in Wedding Crashers, The Notebook and Wes Craven’s Red Eye, eventually garnering an Oscar nomination for 2016’s Spotlight and starring in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Doctor Strange movies and animated What If…?. Amanda Seyfried similarly steadily rose through the Hollywood ranks after the high school comedy with the likes of Big Love, the Mamma Mia! movies and her Oscar-nominated performance in Mank.
Even outside of Mean Girls, Fey can be linked to the launch of many memorable names in the world of comedy with her projects. 30 Rock, in particular, not only further launched solid performers like Tracy Morgan to stardom after already being somewhat known for prior projects, but saw Jack McBrayer become a popular name, going on to star in the likes of the Wreck-It Ralph movies and Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming Pop-Tarts biopic. Some of the others to break out from the NBC sitcom have included Katrina Bowden, Scott Adsit and future Ted Lasso creator Jason Sudeikis.
With the new Mean Girls cast featuring a wide array of younger actors on the rise, including Rice, who made a name for herself in both the MCU and Shane Black’s The Nice Guys, it will be interesting to see if Fey has once again found a way to set up her performers to break into the mainstream. Rapp has already indicated a lack of a desire to continue acting due to the anxiety of the industry, but with Cravalho steadily tackling more live-action work after her debut in Moana and Briney fresh off the success of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, their takes on Fey’s iconic characters could very well be the springboard to popularity should the musical reach the same heights as its original.
Mean Girls (2024)
Mean Girls is a reimagining of the 2004 classic comedy film as a musical, directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. When Cady Heron and her family move from Africa to the United States; she experiences a culture shock when she enters the public school system for the first time. While trying to fit in, she is roped into the popular but superficial and cruel clique, the Plastics.
- Release Date
- January 12, 2024
- Director
- Samantha Jayne , Arturo Perez Jr.
- Cast
- Angourie Rice , Auli’i Cravalho , Jaquel Spivey , Reneé Rapp , Jon Hamm , Ashley Park , Jenna Fischer , Tina Fey , Tim Meadows
- Rating
- Not Yet Rated
- Genres
- Comedy , Musical
- Writers
- Nell Benjamin , Tina Fey
- Story By
- Tina Fey
- Studio(s)
- Broadway Video , Little Stranger , Paramount Pictures , Paramount Players
- Distributor(s)
- Paramount Pictures
