'Mean Girls': 8 more secrets from the cast

It’s the most happy of pop culture coincidences: The 10-year anniversary of the theatrical release of Mean Girls is today, and April 30 just happens to be a pink-clad Wednesday this year. Mean Girls fans — a huge amount of people in 2004, and somehow an even larger group now — know that Wednesdays are sort-of special when it comes to quoting the Tina Fey-penned cult comedy, second only to Oct. 3.

“Mean Girls is such a special movie because it has so many people who were just starting out,” explained Jonathan Bennett, who played sexy-with-his-hair-pushed-back Aaron Samuels. “[On set] we were aware of how big these people were going to be, but no one else was. Rachel McAdams wasn’t Rachel McAdams yet. Lindsay Lohan wasn’t really Lindsay Lohan yet. All the set was a group of kids that were extremely talented and loved their characters, and that’s why [the film] was so good — because they all came together and just did their thing and it was perfect.”

When EW spoke with many of the stars of the film earlier this month, they shared plenty of stories from their time on set — from the original lyrics of Kevin G’s rap to the story behind filming “Beautiful” for the Winter Talent Show. But a set that had Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams, and more running around for 40 days was sure to inspire more anecdotes than could possibly fit into one article. So, like a candy cane-gram straight from Glenn Coco, below are eight more stories just for you.

1.) The Saturday Night Live-alum adult cast happened organically. “It was frankly discouraged by Paramount,” director Mark Waters explained about the casting of Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler, et al. “Paramount didn’t want this movie to be branded as an SNL movie. At the same time, Lorne [Michaels] and Tina never put pressure on me about it, but they just said, ‘By the way, for this really, really small supporting part, we could get you Amy Poehler.’ Or ‘We can get you Tim Meadows to do the principal.’ My attitude was, ‘Are you kidding? Let’s get Tim Meadows!’ But it required some sweet talking on my part with Paramount to convince them it was the right idea.”

2.) Daniel Franzese — who didn’t land the part of Damian until after the table read — had a memorable first interaction with Tina Fey. “[Amanda Seyfried was doing her audition] and she was like, ‘I think I’ll wear this outfit, or this one,’” Franzese explained. “And she had two tops and one was yellow and one was, like, merlot. And I just butted in and said, ‘I would go with the merlot.’ And Tina turned around and laughed. And I said [to Tina], ‘I just want to tell you I think you’re fabulous,’ and she said, ‘Thank you!’ We started talking for a little bit and then when I was next, I went into the room and they said, ‘You ! We loved you! We thought you worked here. Now we’re excited.'”

3.) Martha Stewart creates friendships. “When I went in for my final callback, in the waiting room it was just me and Rachel,” Rajiv Surendra, who portrayed Kevin G., remembered. “And we were just sort of sitting there, and she saw on my résumé that I had done something with Martha Stewart [laughs] a couple years before. And she’s like, ‘Wow, what did you do with Martha Stewart?’ So we kind of clicked right away. And then when we were shooting, I believe she was furnishing a new apartment or she was just moving into a new place, and she was looking for an egg poacher, so there was a day where I helped her find an egg poacher. So random!”

4.) Jonathan Bennett has fond memories of Rachel — and Ryan Gosling. “I will say this: Rachel McAdams has the softest lips on the face of the earth that anyone will ever kiss. Hands down,” Bennett said. “…I think I did tell her that! We kissed for the first time on camera, and I was like, ‘Whoa!’ At that time, Rachel was also talking about this little movie she had just finished called The Notebook and [I was] like, ‘Yeah, that’s cool. Ryan who? Never heard of him.’ [laughs] And [now] it’s just the [biggest] thing.”

5.) Mark Waters loves the all-school fight just as much as fans. “My favorite [scene from the film] just because I’d never done anything like it was the girl-on-girl melee where we had stunt people intermixed with non-stunt people and blasting the water and getting everybody wet,” Waters said about the climactic fight. “We had hundreds of extras and all the principals and we were going to drench everybody. So there was something there that was kind of really daunting and challenging about that. It was the biggest catfight in cinematic history. It felt like we were doing something groundbreaking.”

6.) Lindsay Lohan and Jonathan Bennett cracked each other up. “I remember [the scene I couldn’t keep a straight face for] was the one where Lindsay and I are sitting in the house and she tells me that Regina’s cheating on me; we could not keep it together to save our lives,” Bennett explained. “We really couldn’t. We just couldn’t. We laughed, because we had to look at each other really serious, and by that point Lindsay and I had become really close so we had tons of inside jokes, so every time we had to look at each other very seriously, if there was even a hint of a smile from either of us, we would lose it.”

7.) All the cast members have had crazy fan encounters over the years. “I was at a dinner in Ohio and I had a girl come up with one of her friends to take a photo and she broke out into hives, like in front of me. I watched it happen, because she was so nervous,” Bennett shared. “I was like, ‘I’m not that cool! Promise!” For Franzese, it’s all about the artwork. “I had a fan needlepoint me ‘She doesn’t even go here,’ with me in a blue hoodie. I thought that was pretty incredible. … I actually met her a few weeks ago at a diner in New York. It was the cutest thing ever.”

8.) As evidenced by photos like this, most of the cast keeps up with each other. “Yeah, [I talk to] most of them actually,” Franzese explained. “Lizzy [Caplan], definitely. Lindsay, I do. Lacey [Chabert] and I are going to lunch tomorrow. I see Jonathan Bennett every once in a while, Rajiv and I are really close. Diego [Klattenhoff], who played Shane Oman, and I talk. I see Amanda occasionally, and we always have a good time. I haven’t seen Rachel McAdams since the movie. And I haven’t seen Tina in a long time. Oh! I see Amy a lot. … It’s a small town; Hollywood is a high school we all go to. … [With Lindsay] we talk about our day-to-day lives mostly. Our friendship definitely has the feeling of ‘we went to high school together,’ after all these years. She was high school-aged when that happened, and a lot of those girls didn’t have a typical high school experience, so this is the [alternative] version of that for her, I’m sure. We hang out like normal; we just laugh. And she’s doing great. I’ve definitely seen a positive change in her.”