Posted in: Movies, Paramount Pictures | Tagged: film, Mean Girls, Paramount Pictures, tina fey

Mean Girls Directors on Getting to Collaborate with Tina Fey

The directors of the new musical Mean Girls movie are sharing their thoughts on getting to collaborate with writer and actor Tina Fey.

Published Sun, 21 Jan 2024 08:17:10 -0600

by Aedan Juvet

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Article Summary

'Mean Girls' returns as a new musical with fresh directors at the helm.
Tina Fey collaborates, lending her timeless script and on-set wisdom.
Directors praise Fey's openness and lack of ego in the creative process.
The modern classic navigates high school intricacies with a comic twist.

The 2004 film Mean Girls is recognized for being a hard-to-miss contribution to the cinematic side of pop culture, with Tina Fey creating a spectacular story that's accessible to multiple generations. Now, the film is back with a musical, more modernized (well-received) version of the original movie, incorporating new directors to bring the title to life. And in celebration of its release, the filmmaking duo is making it known that Fey has a lot to offer.

Mean Girls Topped The Holiday Weekend Box Office — Bebe Wood plays Gretchen, Renee Rapp plays Regina, and Avantika plays Karen in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures. Image credit Jojo Whilden/Paramount Pictures

When chatting with Collider, the film's directorial duo Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. discussed what it was like to work with Fey (the film's screenwriter and actor) on a timeless coming-of-age film, with Perez admitting, "I think just learning from Tina about how to collaborate and how to conduct yourself on set, how to lead in a script sense and stuff. I don't know; there's lots of things that I think I've learned from this experience." Jayne then explained, "Yeah, it is true with [what Perez said about] Tina. Her openness to new ideas it can only make everything better, right? And if you don't like the idea, you don't take it. And if you like the idea, great! It makes it better, and there's no ego about it. And I think for us, the ego is always on the project because that's what people are seeing, so that's important."

Mean Girls Cast and Plot Summary

Mean Girls plot summary: From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called "The Plastics," ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika).

However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina's crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group's apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli'i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.

Mean Girls is in theaters now.

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