- - Rachel McAdams Recalls Being Told She Was ‘Too Old’ to Play the Lead in “Mean Girls”: ‘I Took It as a Compliment’ (Exclusive)

Andrea MandellJanuary 31, 2026 at 8:30 PM

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Rachel McAdams as Regina George in Mean Girls, 2004

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Rachel McAdams recalls to PEOPLE how she originally auditioned for Lindsay Lohan's role in Mean Girls

"I just did not think I was at that point in my life where I would be chosen for that," she says

She was ultimately cast as the film's villain Regina George

Rachel McAdams made pop culture history with her biting teen queen Regina George — but her first audition for 2004’s Mean Girls was for a very different part.

The Ontario native initially read for Cady Heron, the naive protagonist ultimately played by Lindsay Lohan, then 17. At 25, “I remember thinking, ‘This is a futile exercise. I will never be hired for Cady,’ ” McAdams tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, on stands now.

“I was just starting out, and it was the main character," the Send Help star continues. "I just did not think I was at that point in my life where I would be chosen for that. So I just kind of went in and had fun.”

McAdams, 47, recalls just wanting to be part of the “brilliant” Tina Fey’s film. “I loved the script so much. I remember closing that script and calling up my manager and saying, 'Please, even just playing a character that has one line I would take.' ”

Mean Girls

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Mean Girls director Mark Waters offered up the ultimate twist. “You’re too old to play Cady, but you’re just right for Regina,” he said. “Regina has been around the block a few times and maybe has a, I don't know if I'd call her an old soul, but she's got a few more miles on her than Cady," McAdams tells PEOPLE. "So I took it as a compliment.”

And when Mean Girls hit theaters in April 2004, history was made. “Playing the villain is the best,” she says. Two months later, The Notebook was released in theaters, cementing McAdams as a fierce new talent on the rise.

The timing was “just something totally out of my control," she says. "I’ve heard that maybe luck gets your foot in the door, but it doesn't keep you in the room. I don't know who said that, but I think that's really true."

Rachel McAdams

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She adds, "They were two totally different movies, back to back and they both got some attention. So that's where I really think the luck of the draw was for me in my life.”

Over two decades later, McAdams' career has spanned genres and delivered countless hits, from the iconic comedy Wedding Crashers ("so much fun" to film "it did not feel like work," she says) and the best-selling adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife to Marvel's Doctor Strange blockbusters and her Oscar nominated turn for 2015's Spotlight. "I feel really lucky to still be here," she says. "I’m still pinching myself."

McAdams' new psychological thriller Send Help is in theaters now.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”